Mark Latham and Chris Minns locked in a war of words over One Nation leader’s homophobic tweet 

Mark Latham has branded Chris Minns ‘a fool’ after the NSW premier warned he would not cooperate with the One Nation leader following his homophobic tweet.

Mr Minns called the tweet “despicable” and said on Sunday he would try to dissuade Mr Latham from chairing committees in the Upper House of the NSW Parliament.

He is the latest person to condemn Mr Latham after the leader of the One Nation NSW fired off an abusive tweet about Sydney MP Alex Greenwich on Thursday.

Mr Latham was called a ‘disgusting human being’ by Mr Greenwich for attending a rally on March 21 where Christians clashed with LGBTQI activists, to which he responded on Twitter.

‘Awful? How does that compare to sticking your dick in a guy’s ass and covering him in shit?” He wrote.

The leader of the One Nation NSW hit back at Mr Minns, telling Daily Mail Australia he was ‘not a candidate for a’ committee chairmanship and that Mr Minns is ‘a fool’.

“But if that’s what a new prime minister thinks about, then he’s just showing people how empty he is,” he said.

Former NSW Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet resigned as leader of the Liberal Party after losing last weekend’s state election, but Mr Minns said he would seek an agreement with the party’s next leader over efforts to sideline Mr Latham to put.

“I’m not sure who will lead the Liberal Party in the coming months, but I would urge their organization to make a similar commitment,” he said.

“The comments he made regarding the independent member for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, were vile and clearly hugely disrespectful.”

Mr. Minns said Mr. Latham “tried … to import an American-style (Donald) Trump-style approach to politics in NSW, but without any political success.”

“We’re not going to partner with One Nation,” he said.

‘(Mr Latham’s) comments, his approach to politics in NSW (are) clearly someone who takes a hateful approach to politics.

“I don’t think it is conducive to…good politics in this state to have him elevated to his status as a member of the NSW upper house,” Mr Minns told Sky News.

On Saturday, Mr Latham went ahead with his refusal to apologize for his now-deleted tweet about Mr Greenwich.

“Sometimes in public life when you throw insults they come back to you harder and truer… So boo-hoo Alex Greenwich,” he said.

Mr Latham said that when Mr Greenwich ‘calls someone a disgusting person for attending a meeting in a church hall, perhaps attention will turn to some of his habits’.

“Greenwich goes to schools to talk to kids about being gay,” he said.

“I didn’t want to be accused of something similar, leaving that kind of content on my socials.”

Mr Latham’s comments this week led to One Nation founder and national leader Pauline Hanson demanding that he apologise.

She made the demand in a video when she revealed she had been unable to contact Mr Latham.

Mr Latham had refused to apologize on Friday and posted another tweet instead.

“Never apologize, never explain,” he said.

Mr Minns called him a ‘bigory’ and said the comments were ‘despicable and shameful’.

Mr Minns said Mr Greenwich was an “extremely effective” politician who “manages to take the conversation to the next level and make big changes in the state…

“One of the things that shouldn’t be forgotten is that comments like this, while horrible in their own right, do cast ghosts on people like Alex.

“It’s not what we need in public life. There must be unequivocal and universal condemnation of these comments,” he said.

NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe also joined the pile, saying Mr Latham’s tweet was ‘completely unacceptable’.

But she revealed that parliament is unable to discipline the One Nation leader because he used a loophole in the upper house system that allowed him to step down as an MP before the state election and contest his seat again.

This has resulted in One Nation being able to fill its previous, now vacant seat with another politician, likely Tania Mihailuk, who, like Latham, is a former Labor MP.

The homophobic attack on him briefly brought Mr Greenwich to tears on Thursday, he said.

“This obviously hurt me. I cried a little bit at the end of the day yesterday,” he told reporters on Friday.

“After ten years in this gig and being re-elected, I didn’t think I would still be a victim of homophobic abuse.”

However, Mr Greenwich refused to call on Mr Latham to apologize or resign.

“I don’t want to give him another soapbox to pretend to be a victim if he wants to victimize people.”