Mark Latham says he’s taking on the “curse of political correctness in Australia” – is that what you’d call it?

Like a baddie in a B-grade movie,  Mark Latham is back, again. This time the professional shock artist was been given an hour-long spot on radio station Triple M called “Lathamland”.

The former Labor leader has become a “walking headline”, as described by Fairfax media, thanks to his boorish, aggressive opinions on Channel 9 show The Verdict last year.

With this new venture, Latham says he has set out to correct “political correctness gone beserk” and, while we hate the PC police as much as anyone, we’re not sure he’s really championing the cause.

“There’s been a real surge in political correctness over the past couple of years in Australia and quite frankly it’s pissing off a lot of people who don’t like being sneered at, who don’t like being called racist or sexist, who don’t like being told what they can and can’t say.”

In a teaser for the show, Latham attacked “cultural elitists” and aired some views on domestic violence that listeners are finding hard to take.

Latham says a cohort of self-appointed, unelected elites are responsible for everyday Australians feeling like they can’t say what they want. Perhaps he means using words like “muzzie” and “negro”, which he insists is perfectly acceptable and still in use in Western Sydney, his former electorate.

“What’s it come to when someone says ‘I don’t like being called that’, and you can’t say it? It’s a denial of freedom of speech. It’s political correctness gone beserk,” he said.

Latham went on to say that 2015’s Australian of the Year Rosie Batty was leading a group of feminists who were at war “against all Australian men”.

“Surveys show women are safer than ever before, that, sure, there are some unacceptable incidents of domestic assault in the community, but they’re no worse than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Why this big national push?

“A lot of it of course has come out of Rosie Batty’s role as a spokeswoman for the feminist movement, the left feminist movement.
“That’s the thing that worries me about the domestic violence campaign. It’s being run for political reasons. It’s left feminists pushing what they call definition of patriarchy. They think Australia is a patriarchy.”

The radio station predicted that the podcast would rattle a few cages, and sure enough it has attracted hundreds of angry comments on social media. In a promotion for the segment, the radio station posed the question: “Is he the wild nutbag of Australian politics, or could he be just what this country needs?” Good question…

Which of the following do you think best describes Mark Latham:

• a) He has some good points, just a terrible way of expressing them
• b) He does not speak for me and should be banned from the media
• c) Ignore him and he might go away (but probably not)

Share your thoughts…