Ex-Labor Party dingleberry, Skid-Mark LAMEtham (Mark Latham), is at it again people, blowing more hot air out his mouth than ever before on 2GB’s breakfast program. This time the discharge was directed at low-income earners, Indigenous Australians and Rosie Batty.

I’ll quickly lay it down for you: the leathery haemorrhoid also known as Alan Jones, used his 2GB breakfast show to criticise the language Malcom Turnbull used in a speech he made at The COAG National Summit on Reducing Violence against Women as well as criticise statements NSW premier, Mike Baird, made earlier in the year. Jones stated:

“Michael Baird said more than half the men who assaulted their partners re-offend within 4 months. That’s most likely true, but that also creates doesn’t it, an exaggerated impression that men in general are out there assaulting their partners?”

The trite rebuttal “not all men” that constantly spews from people like Jones simply aims to deter DV stats from being facts. We get it – not all men assault their partners, but it happens. They aren’t talking about you when they say “men”—it’s not all about you.

It was after this little rant that Jones threw a bone to his good doggy pal Latham, who, if you turned the volume up loud, you could probably hear him frothing at the mouth waiting to give his opinion on the topic. This is what Latham had to say:

“Well if you look at the statistics, it’s actually a problem that’s concentrated in certain areas among certain communities. For every domestic incident in a middle class suburb in Australia, you’ll find ten in the public housing estate, and twenty-five, twenty-five a huge number, in remote indigenous communities.”

He doesn’t mention where he got the stats, though it’s true that rates of domestic violence are higher in regional and remote areas. The real issue here is Latham’s allusion. What he’s basically saying is that because the problem is concentrated, then it shouldn’t be classed as a national problem. Because well-to-do people don’t assault women at a high rate, we should focus on other things.

He went on to say that sexist jokes are fine and how based on his own anecdotal experience, he believes 99% of men respect women. Yet, as soon as he’s finished with this conjectural bullshit, he starts bullying Rosie Batty.

Rosie Batty was awarded Australian of the Year in 2015 for her contribution to domestic violence advocacy. She set up the Luke Batty Foundation in memory of her son after he was killed by his father – Rosie’s ex-partner.

Latham claimed that there had been serious financial mismanagement within the Luke Batty foundation. He claimed that Batty earned $5000 during speaking engagements, but there was over $135,000 missing from the foundation (alluding to her taking it), and that the treasurer of the foundation left because of these issues. That treasurer, Anthea West, contradicted the allegation by telling Fairfax Media that simply wasn’t the case.

West stated there was no missing money and that she resigned because the work load became too much, “because I was doing all the administration as well as all the donation receipting.”

Batty was deeply affected by Latham’s comments, writing on the Luke Batty Foundation’s Facebook page

“It has dragged me down since I’ve known Mark Latham was digging to discredit me…I feel violated.”

For a man who stated domestic violence is more prevalent in remote communities, and that 99% of men respect women, immediately slandering a well-known DV advocate and woman really doesn’t help his argument.

So where’s all this hate coming from?

I believe Latham’s anger could possibly stem from the fact that when he hears “men” in regards to domestic violence, he feels guilty by association. This is known as ‘association fallacy’. And there’s nobody better to target than the woman who brought domestic violence to national attention.

This is a problem a lot of men have. When someone says “men assault women at a higher rate than women assault men” they immediately assume that the issue is about them.

Australia needs to have a national discussion about domestic violence, without men feeling like every accusation is directed at them personally.

Until we stop compartmentalising the issue and rather look at it as a societal problem, we’ll continue to circle the issue without actually implementing any change for the good.