Mark Latham unleashes brutal attack on former ally Pauline Hanson’s One Nation under the protection of parliamentary privilege: ‘Scams’

One Nation’s former NSW leader, Mark Latham, has unleashed against his old party. 

In his rant on Thursday evening, protected under parliamentary privilege, Latham accused figures within One Nation of engaging in ‘financial scams,’ cash‑laundering activities, and the ‘nefarious’ misuse of taxpayer‑funded political money. 

Parliamentary privilege is a legal protection that allows MPs to speak freely on topics connected to their jobs in Parliament without the risk of being sued for defamation. So allegations can be raised that might not be allowed outside the chamber. 

Speaking during a debate about electoral law reforms, Latham claimed One Nation had been running ‘a conveyor belt of financial misconduct’, and insisted the party’s national officials were siphoning NSW funds to Queensland for improper purposes.

‘Queensland One Nation were taking the NSW administrative money and paying it into a bank account in Brisbane,’ he told the chamber about his stint with the party. 

Latham claimed he regarded the alleged behaviour as ‘the equivalent of theft’.

He told the Upper House that he had warned One Nation’s then-national secretary Rod Miles in a fiery phone call.

‘Unless you repay that money tomorrow, I’m going down to the Day Street police station to report the theft,’ he said. 

According to Latham, Miles returned the funds after they spoke. 

He claimed One Nation’s obsession with merchandise sales was a deliberate vehicle for cash manipulation. 

‘For what had been a small party, they’ve got more merchandise than a $2 shop in the main street of Campbelltown,’ he said.

‘If the cash is available, it can be laundered and distributed for any purpose,’ he said. 

Latham went further, alleging that funds raised by the party ‘certainly’ paid the private legal expenses of Pauline Hanson and her adviser James Ashby, and that he was ‘pretty sure that some of the cash gets laundered into their own personal purposes’.

‘That’s the problem with cash in politics. Nobody really knows where it’s going,’ he said. 

The former One Nation NSW leader recounted multiple scandals involving Ashby, calling him ‘a faceless crook, obsessed with financial scams, who defies the wishes of his boss and does what he likes.’ 

Latham highlighted the infamous Al Jazeera sting, in which Ashby was filmed seeking support from the US National Rifle Association. 

‘You’d have to be an absolute moron to not know he wasn’t a plant,’ Latham said.

‘They totally disgraced themselves over there.’

He also claimed Hanson privately agreed with him at the time that Ashby should not travel to the United States, citing the illegality and political toxicity of accepting foreign money. 

‘You can’t be taking foreign money… the equivalent of foreign interference,’ Latham said he told Ashby. 

But according to Latham, Ashby ignored the warnings and travelled anyway. 

Latham accused Sky News hosts Peter Credlin, Andrew Bolt and Paul Murray of giving Ashby legitimacy he did not deserve. 

‘It is to their discredit… that they associate with this shyster,’ he said. 

The former One Nation figure urged stronger legal safeguards to prevent interstate officials controlling NSW party finances. 

‘You can’t have the New South Wales admin money being run by a committee of Queenslanders,’ he said, welcoming new government amendments requiring party agents and senior office‑holders to be enrolled voters in NSW.

Latham ended his extraordinary spray by claiming One Nation has a long history of pushing Queensland influence within national structures.

‘They have a long reputation… of favouring Queensland, with financial scams, cash, and even senators.’

‘If you vote for One Nation you’re not voting for Paulin Hanson. You’re voting for James Ashby and his financial scams,’ he said. 

He criticised One Nation for nominating Sean Bell, a then-Queensland resident, to fill a NSW Senate vacancy left by One Nation’s Warwick Stacey, who was elected, but resigned before he was sworn into Parliament. 

Mark Latham joined Pauline Hanson’s One Nation in late 2018, becoming the party’s high‑profile leader in NSW and its most prominent parliamentary figure.

He quickly emerged as the face of the party’s state operations, leading its ticket at the 2019 NSW election and later returning to the Legislative Council after the 2023 poll. 

However, internal tensions simmered for years, particularly around James Ashby’s influence. 

Latham repeatedly clashed with federal figures, previously accusing the national executive of interfering in NSW affairs and undermining the state branch. 

In August 2023, One Nation officially sacked Latham as NSW leader.

Latham later resigned from the party entirely to sit as an independent, blasting the national leadership and accusing it of dysfunction and financial mismanagement. 

Daily Mail contacted Senator Pauline Hanson for comment.