KEY POINTS:
- NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham posted a homophobic tweet targeted at Independent MP Alex Greenwich on Thursday.
- Mr Greenwich said he didn’t expect an apology from Mr Latham.
- He said he was more concerned about the impact of current legislation in NSW.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich says he doesn’t expect an apology after being the target of a homophobic tweet by NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham.
Mr Greenwich said he didn't want to waste his time engaging with the now-deleted Twitter post by the one-time federal Labor leader turned One Nation MP, but he admitted it had affected him.
"It is extremely hurtful when there is a vile homophobic attack directed at you," the member for Sydney told ABC radio on Friday.
"It's not the first time this has happened to me ... that hurt [but it] quickly turned into motivation to make sure we stamp out laws which allow my community to be discriminated against.
"Just as horrific as Mr Latham's comments are, the impact of current legislation in NSW is more horrific."
One Nation federal leader Senator Pauline Hanson, who appeared at an anti-transgender rally last week in Canberra, took to Twitter on Thursday to condemn Mr Latham's homophobic attack.
Senator Hanson said she had tried calling the firebrand MP a few times to ask him to issue a public apology but he had not responded.
Her office on Friday morning declined to say whether Mr Latham had since replied, saying any further response was "up to Mark Latham".
Mr Greenwich dismissed Senator Hanson's intervention as "empty words", pointing to her recent motion in the Senate which "targeted the trans community".
"This is a party which is based on attacking different minority groups within our community, one by one," he said.
"Sure, she's probably embarrassed by the content of what her state leader had said, but the actions she has taken have consistently been anti-LGBT in the Senate."
Premier Chris Minns, who is expected to directly address Mr Latham's tweet later on Friday, told a party room meeting that politics in NSW shouldn't descend into personal insults no matter how much people disagreed.
He encouraged Labor MPs to continue with the respect and civility that characterised the state election campaign and approach every debate and conversation with respect.
"We emphasise our point of view, we say we're heading in a different direction," he told the first meeting of the Labor caucus since the election.
"There's no need to have a race to the bottom and have personal insults. We don't need to do that in NSW politics."
Mr Latham's tweet was posted in response to a news article in which Mr Greenwich branded him "a disgusting human being".
The article followed the targeting of LGBTQI protesters outside a church where Mr Latham was speaking on religious freedom and parental rights last week.
"Disgusting?" Mr Latham wrote, before disparagingly describing sexual acts in graphic detail.
The tweet, posted shortly after 10am on Thursday, was deleted within a few hours but screenshots have been widely shared by other accounts.
Mr Latham joined One Nation in 2018. He was voted in again to the upper house in the NSW election on Saturday, giving the party three MPs in the 42-seat chamber.
