Opinion
In public life, some private failings can be overlooked. But this MP should resign
Alexandra Smith
State Political EditorMore than a decade before the grubby antics of the Seven Network were revealed in spectacular fashion through its role in securing the infamous Bruce Lehrmann interview, the network had already stooped devastatingly low in its pursuit of a NSW Labor minister. The then transport minister David Campbell, a man who was respected within his party and across the political divide, was followed to a gay men’s club and outed as a man living a double life.
Seven justified its decision to film Campbell leaving the now defunct Ken’s gay sauna in the city’s east on the grounds that he was using his ministerial car to get there. Seven also clumsily tried to argue that Campbell was a blackmail risk. Few bought the network’s argument. It was gossip for gossip’s sake dressed up as public interest journalism.
Former NSW transport minister David Campbell.Credit: Jon Reid
But the sorry saga, which reporters from other outlets covered – albeit reluctantly – sent a clear message: politicians’ private lives were now fair game. Fifteen years on, the political career of another NSW MP is over after his personal life bled into his political world. Unlike in the case of Campbell, there should be little sympathy in this instance.
Taylor Martin, a member of the upper house, is on the crossbench after being expelled from the Liberal Party after the Herald revealed hundreds of private messages in which he called former federal Liberal MP Lucy Wicks a pig, a “f---ing idiot” and a “dumb slut”. One text said: “Go stay in your world of f---ing make-believe you f---ing pig-ignorant bitch”.
Martin and Wicks – who is 18 years his senior – had been in a clandestine relationship. Martin worked for Wicks, the former member for Robertson, as a staffer in her Central Coast office before he became the youngest MP in Macquarie Street when he filled an upper house vacancy created by the retirement of Mike Gallacher in 2017. Some party colleagues say they suspected an affair, but it was only confirmed when Wicks last year lodged a formal complaint with the Liberal Party.
The party hired senior counsel Trish McDonald to investigate, a wise move given the Liberals’ woeful track record in dealing with women. Martin, a member of the centre-right faction of the Liberals (the grouping which also includes Scott Morrison, powerbroker Alex Hawke and former resident Macquarie Street bomb-thrower David Elliott) agreed to remove himself from the party room until McDonald’s work was done. The investigation dragged on.
Taylor Martin is alleged to have sent former federal MP Lucy Wicks profane and abusive text messages.Credit: Wolter Peeters, Supplied
Late on Friday night, the state executive of the Liberal Party was told about McDonald’s findings, which concluded that Martin’s conduct involved yelling at and abusing Wicks, flying into rages, using “degrading abusive and misogynistic language” towards her and making “vile accusations” against her. His behaviour, McDonald found, continued after the pair broke up in 2019, two years into his stint as an elected representative.
The differences between Campbell and Martin are stark. Being a gay man while married to a woman has ramifications for one’s family and wife. Using abusive and misogynistic language towards a female in the post #metoo world goes to character.
Martin blamed his behaviour on youth and inexperience. “I found myself involved in a situation that was way beyond me,” Martin told my colleague Jordan Baker, presumably referring to the age gap between the pair. “There were heated words during my attempts to go separate ways that I sincerely regret. It was an ugly and undignified parting of ways.”
The MP had not expected such an overwhelmingly negative set of findings against him, having previously insisted there are two sides to every break-up story. Of course, he is right, but that does not excuse the degrading choice of words which he – McDonald found – repeatedly hurled at Wicks. Some of his factional supporters have tried to defend Martin, arguing that mistakes in his personal life should not cost him his political career.
But in public life, poor judgment can be political suicide. There is no better example than former premier Gladys Berejiklian, who blew up her career when she maintained a secret romance with a dud. Daryl Maguire is corrupt and so is Berejiklian, after it was found she turned a blind eye to her lover’s dodgy ways.
Berejiklian’s decision to date Maguire for five years, including after he was forced out of parliament under a corruption cloud, ended her political career when she was at the top of her game. She maintained that she kept her private and public life completely separate but the anti-corruption watchdog did not buy her argument. Berejiklian is appealing ICAC’s decision.
Nonetheless, Berejiklian’s private life was her political undoing. Martin’s personal life has also finished him. The Liberals acted swiftly in cutting him loose from the party. Now the MP should do the appropriate thing and resign from parliament to make way for someone with far better judgment.
Alexandra Smith is the Herald’s state political editor.
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