今日吃瓜

One Nation MP Mark Latham has doubled down and refused to apologise for the now-deleted homophobic tweet about Independent MP for Sydney Alex Greenwich.

The tweet has sparked outrage and politicians across the board鈥攊ncluding his own party leader, Pauline Hanson鈥攈ave condemned him.

After disappearing for more than 24 hours after the initial tweet, Latham returned to Twitter on Friday with a retweet of a study from Columbia University.

鈥楴ever apologise, never explain鈥� turns out to be right,鈥� Latham tweeted, matching the article鈥檚 title. He also proceeded to go on a Twitter tirade, giving no indication that he was apologetic or remorseful for his earlier words.

‘Never apologise, never explain’ turns out to be right

鈥� Real Mark Latham (@RealMarkLatham)

The Tweet That Started It All

The now-deleted tweet that started it all was Latham鈥檚 response to a news article about the violet protest outside a church that he spoke at during the NSW election campaign.

In the article, Greenwich called Latham a 鈥渄isgusting human being鈥� and that people who vote for him are 鈥渧oting for an extremely hateful and dangerous individual who risks causing a great deal of damage to our state.鈥�

鈥淒isgusting?鈥� Latham had responded before writing a graphic and homophobic comment.

Latham鈥檚 party leader, Hanson was among the many that called for him to apologise and condemned the comment. Hanson told her followers in a video on Facebook that she鈥檚 tried to reach out to Latham but 鈥渢o no avail.鈥�

鈥淚 want you to know that I don鈥檛 condone them [the tweet] and neither do my members of parliament or party associates,鈥� Hanson said.

鈥淚 think they are disgusting … and I have clearly sent a text message to him telling him my views and also I鈥檝e asked for him to give the people an apology.鈥�

Unacceptable Behaviour

Minister for the Environment Penny Sharpe has joined NSW Premier Chris Minns in condemning the comments but Labor is unable to do anything as the upper house count continued.

鈥淗is behaviour over the last couple聽of days is unacceptable;聽there’s no place for it in New South Wales,聽there’s no place for it in New South Wales politics, no place for it in our community,鈥� she said, as reported by the ABC.

鈥淗e’s also currently not a member of parliament because he resigned from the parliament, and we won’t have the outcome of the upper house ballot.

“And let’s see what happens when they press the button on the upper house ballot on the 20th of April.”