‘Vicious payback’: Mark Latham removed from Royal Randwick restaurant by police

Controversial MP Mark Latham has threatened legal action after he was escorted by police from a venue at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.

Latham was asked to leave by management during the Epsom Day racing event on Saturday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Australian Turf Club said, but he refused.

Police approached Latham in the Grandview Restaurant, where he debated with officers for a short time before police escorted him from the venue about 2pm. Video shows two officers marching Latham from the venue as a punter shouted, “Can I have his dessert?”

Latham is not allowed on the racetrack after he resigned his ATC membership amid an investigation into his alleged verbal abuse of a club official at Rosehill Racecourse in April, the ATC spokesperson said.

Latham entered the racecourse as a guest of another member and walked through the Chairman’s Club, the racecourse’s high-end enclave where Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys hosts guests.

Latham did not respond to a request for comment but said on X that the club had allowed him through the main gate and into the Chairman’s Club with his guest pass, and that he’d attended Rosehill Racecourse four weeks ago without an issue. The Australian Turf Club runs both Sydney courses.

“The ATC has never held a hearing or notified me of a racetrack ban. Nothing until today when they called Maroubra Police,” Latham wrote. He said he went to Kembla Grange Racecourse on Saturday afternoon instead.

“I have spoken to my lawyers to commence legal proceedings,” he wrote.

The independent MP was given a 12-month good behaviour bond by the club after he was accused of launching a verbal tirade against the club’s then-head of corporate affairs and government relations, Steve McMahon, in the members’ area. McMahon was appointed interim chief executive of the club last month.

Two disciplinary hearings over the incident were held in September.

Latham was a fierce critic of the proposed $5 billion sale of Rosehill Gardens Racecourse to the state government to build 25,000 homes on the site. He claimed on X that his removal from Randwick on Saturday was “vicious payback for stopping the sale of Rosehill”.

Latham was criticised for disclosing V’landys’ home address while questioning Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris during a live-streamed upper house hearing in August.

In July, he denied domestic violence claims made against him by former girlfriend Nathalie Matthews, who in submissions to the NSW Local Court alleged Latham engaged in a “sustained pattern” of abuse, including pressuring her to have sex with other people and participate in depraved acts.

He was also accused of recording “sordid” sexual acts in his office at NSW Parliament House.

Latham said the allegations were untrue and he would defend himself in court. His relationship with Matthews ended on May 27, the day Latham voted to help reject the proposed sale of Rosehill Racecourse to the government in a fiery meeting of ATC members.

NSW Premier Chris Minns called Latham one of the state’s most “shameful bigots” after he revealed details of a confidential psychologist’s report on independent MP Alex Greenwich.

Last year Greenwich was awarded $140,000 in damages when the Federal Court found Latham had defamed him in an offensive and graphic tweet.

Latham served as the state leader for One Nation from 2018 before party leader Pauline Hanson removed him from the position in 2023. He later quit the party to sit as an independent.

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