'Toss-bags' replace fair-dinkum bloke, says Latham

Mark Latham

SYDNEY - The Australian "bloke" is an endangered species being replaced by "nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and toss-bags", one of the country's most controversial public figures believes.

Mark Latham, the embittered former leader of the opposition Labor Party, claims that feminism and political correctness have emasculated the traditional Australian male.

"One of the saddest things I have seen in my lifetime has been the decline in Australian male culture," Latham writes in a book published today.

"Australian mates and good blokes have been replaced by nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and toss-bags. I saw many of them in politics, from all states and parties."

The book, A Conga Line of Suckholes, is a collection of quotes and anecdotes collected by Latham before he resigned as leader of the Opposition last year citing ill health.

The book's title comes from an insult he flung at the Government for its support of the war in Iraq.

An American newspaper called it "possibly the ugliest expression used by an Australian MP". But it was relatively mild compared with some of the language Latham used while lambasting the Government. He once said Prime Minister John Howard "has got his tongue up Bush's clacker that often the poor guy must think he's got an extra haemorrhoid".

Latham has no qualms about mixing such language with loftier quotes from Plato, Shakespeare and Gandhi, and compares himself with Disraeli.

Latham has included in the book 40 of his own quotes - more than double those attributed to Winston Churchill and US presidents Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Franklin Roosevelt.

The lament for the "Aussie bloke" of the past was dangerously misplaced, said social researcher Hugh Mackay. Old-style chauvinists were an endangered breed and that was a good thing.

"He's talking about the ocker, larrikin bloke who thought women should be kept in their place," Mackay said. "There are still a few relics around but for the most part they've disappeared and that can only be a good thing.

"Latham is clearly angry and bruised and he's lashing out in all directions. I think he's seriously out of touch with these assertions."

Latham's acerbic remarks failed to elicit a comment from Howard. "I haven't responded to Mr Latham for some time and I don't intend to break that drought."