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 theHeraldrevealed 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.
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.