A former Australian Labor Leader and prominent newspaper columnist has been accused of using a parody Twitter account to make abusive comments.
A sSenior military officer, Group Captain Catherine McGregor, who is transgender, and Westpac bank have both made complaints about columns by Mark Latham.
Ms McGregor complained in a leaked email to editor-in-chief of the Australian Financial Review, Michael Stutchbury, that she found Latham's remarks about her in his columns hurtful and derogatory.
"It was actually deeply offensive and bizarre but that's your Mark," she wrote.
Leaked emails also show that Westpac, which sponsors the AFR's annual Women Of Influence Awards, has also complained about the "derogatory nature of comments made by Mark Latham published in the AFR".
Th complaints follow Latham columns in which he described Captain McGregor as a "He/She" and suggested that Australian of the Year Rosie Batty was commercialising her the murder of her son.
But there is speculation that a parody Twitter account, @RealMarkLatham, is actually run by Latham himself, after Buzzfeed Australia reported a number of similarities between language used on the account and language used in Latham's AFR columns.
On Monday, the @RealMarkLatham Twitter account posted: "The Dismissal: The AFR has sacked poor Latho, who has retired to Mt Hunter Lodge for a rump steak (medium-rare). Maintain The Page."
Last week, @RealMarkLatham referred to Ms MsGregor as a "he/she" after she tweeted: "Got to love Michael Stutchbuy @FinancialReview. Lets his Court Jester Mark Latham refer to me as He/She. 2015 trans has come a along way."
The account responded with a serious of offensive tweets.
In June, Latham's newspaper column targetted Australian of the Year Rosie Batty, whose son Luke was murdered by his father.
Latham criticised Ms Batty for joining the public speaking circuit and becoming 'commercialised'.
"How did Batty immerse herself in such company, wheeled out at business functions to retell the story of her son's murder in February 2014?" he wrote for the AFR.
"This is one of my pet gripes about modern society: the way in which serious issues and events are converted into bizarre forms of celebrity."
After Ms Batty responded to the column and labelled Mr Latham "uninformed" and 'ignorant', the @RealMarkLatham account began trolling her.
"@RosieBatty1 Coming from you, such a great judge of male character, I'll take it as a compliment," @RealMarkLatham wrote.
Latham has not commented on the claims.
Mamamia founder Mia Freedman, who has also been targetted by the @RealMarkLatham account and Mr Latham's AFR columns, questioned why the newspaper continued to employ him as a columnist.
"Stutchbury remains defiant, resisting all pressure to stop giving a platform to a man who has been called a 'national health risk' for the way he aggressively tears down anyone who dares speaks out about mental illness or domestic violence," Freedman wrote.
"So what will it take for the editor to act? More transgender abuse? More misogyny? Further attacks on Rosie Batty who has surely suffered more than any human should have to in a lifetime without Latham putting his proverbial boot in?"
- Daily Mail