Recently, news surfaced that the independent NSW MP’s ex-girlfriend, Nathalie Matthews, had filed a private application for an apprehended violence order against Latham.

“If you’re sitting there listening to (NSW government upper house leader) Penny Sharpe droning on, then a woman that looks like Nathalie Matthews sends you a message, which one would you pay attention to?” he questioned.

“I am guilty of that on a regular occasion,” Smith responded.

“There are inaccuracies, a lack of context – the reference to an ‘f-parlour’ was an in-joke that I don’t think you’d understand unless you’d seen or participated in the full context of the messages,” Latham added.

He also said “the big news is I have a private life, I had a sex life that I’ve got to say was fantastic”.

Once the federal opposition leader in the Labor Party, Latham has long been a controversial figure in Australian politics.

He has previously attacked Rosie Batty, the domestic violence campaigner and former Australian of the Year, for “demonising men and making them feel worse about themselves”.

He resigned from the Australian Financial Review in 2015 over a series of tweets against prominent female journalists, and more recently was ordered to pay $140,000 in damages to independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich for a defamatory tweet that explicitly described a sex act.

Latham quit One Nation after Pauline Hanson dumped him as the party’s leader in NSW over the tweet.

Smith, meanwhile, has also previously faced allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, having twice been sacked by Nine over misconduct claims.

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