Following his graduation from University in 1982 Mark has worked for a series of Labor politicians, including John Kerin, Gough Whitlam and Bob Carr. Mark served as Mayor of Liverpool Council between 1991 and 1994, having been elected to Liverpool Council as an East Ward Alderman in 1987.
In national politics, Mark was the Member for Werriwa (1994-2005), a Labor Shadow Minister (1996-98 and 2001-2003) and Leader of the Opposition (2003-2005). After holding an early lead in the polls, he led Labor unsuccessfully in its attempt to win government against John Howard at the October 2004 Federal election.
Born on 28 February 1961, Mark grew up in Green Valley near Liverpool in Western Sydney and went to school at Ashcroft Primary School and Hurlstone Agricultural High School, where he was Dux in 1978.
Mark studied Economics at Sydney University, winning the JK Galbraith Prize for Political Economy in 1980 and graduating with an Honours degree in 1982.
After leaving parliament in 2005, Mark was a columnist for various newspapers, including the Australian Financial Review (2007-2015) and Sydney’s Daily Telegraph (2016-2018). He is the author of 13 books, including Civilising Global Capital (1998), The Latham Diaries (2005), Outsiders (2017) and Take Back Australia (2018).
Mark is one of Australia’s leading advocates of ‘outsider’ politics. He strongly opposesthe impact of political correctness and identity politics on public debate, freely speaking his mind on a range of issues. In March 2017 he established an online platform ‘Mark Latham’s Outsiders’. It ran a successful, high-profile Save Australia Day campaign in January 2018.
Video of first speech
