MARK LATHAM
PREVIOUS OPPOSITION LEADER

Mr Latham, thanks for your time.

Nice to be with you, Bryan. How are you?

I’m good, thank you.

Good on you, Bryan.

Gee, you’ve cut quite a swathe this week.

I don’t know about a swathe, Bryan, but I’ve certainly cut a bit of a swathe during the week.

It’s a tough business, isn’t it, politics?

I don’t know about tough, Bryan, but I’ll tell you something about this business, it’s pretty tough. Pretty tough.

Didn’t you know it was going to be tough when you went into it, though?

Yes, yes. You don’t go into a business like this, Bryan, without knowing it’s going to be tough. I knew it would be tough. I knew it would be tough. I knew it would be tough.

Did anything surprise you about it, though?

Only the toughness, Bryan. Only the toughness.

But you would have expected that, wouldn’t you?

I did. You don’t go into a business like this, Bryan, without knowing what to expect.

But were you surprised when it turned out to be so tough?

I wasn’t surprised in the sense that it surprised me.

It’s just that you didn’t expect it?

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly, Bryan. Exactly.

Mr Latham, when did you first realise they were all against you?

When they made me leader of the Labor Party.

And who did that?

They all did. The whole bloody lot of them. They all got together, all of them, literally all of them. And they ganged up on me. They made me the bloody leader of the Labor Party.

And did you expect that?

Well, not to the extent that it happened, Bryan, no.

Did you want to be leader of the Labor Party?

Well, I was in the party forever, Bryan. I’ve been in the party for years and years and years and years and years and years and years and years.

A long time?

So in a way it was kind of an honour to lead these scum.

So you were proud?

I don’t know about proud, Bryan, but I tell you something, it makes you proud when it happens. It makes you proud when it happens.

And who was there when they chose you?

Well, there was a bunch of us there. There was me, Dinsdale Piranha and a bloke called Kierkegaard who just sat there biting the heads off whippets.

Kim Beazley?

Beazer was there. Wayne Swan was there. Good to see Barry Hall in the team, isn’t it? Good to see Barry got off. Isn’t that good news?

Yes. Different sort of Swan, though.

Yes, but it’s good to see a bloke getting off a charge of clouting people. I reckon that’s quite good.

Oh, you like that?

That’s the Australian way for my money, Bryan. That’s the Australian way, isn’t it?

Mark Latham, thank you very much for your time. Good luck with the book and thanks for coming in.

Yes, well, you can start any time you like now, Bryan.

Pardon?

Ready to roll when you are, Bryan.

We just finished.

Yes, but you don’t know what you want to say until it’s all over, do you? It doesn’t matter until it stops mattering. You don’t know what you’re going to say until you finish doing the stuff. (Looking away.) You see that bloke over there?

Yes.

That’s me.

(Concerned for Mr Latham’s health, Bryan wraps it up.) Right. Thanks for your time.