Kennett apologises for Latham bi-polar remarks.

Kennett apologises for Latham bi-polar remarks. 30/06/2005. ABC News Online:

"Mr Kennett is the chairman of the Beyond Blue depression support group and yesterday he told the ABC he was concerned Mr Latham's biography showed signs of a person suffering a bi-polar illness."

Mark Latham has been the victim of a horrid set of vicious, cruel personal attacks ever since the election. He has been hounded, harassed and all sorts of aspersions have been cast. As a person he is an extremely competent thinker who articulates his ideas well. He can been blunt, he can be very colourful in his use of language and he is , above all, capable of individual thinking. The intention seemed to be to discredit and undermine him in the most unfair fashion. Unfair because he has been expected to tolerate and survive the sort of lambasting no one can. He has become physically ill from it and the media and other individuals have aimed a very consistent campaign about him and then clapped when he was not able to withstand the hunting down. Everyone has the right to their opinion. Everyone has the right to approve or disapprove of a leader, but to hunt someone down and constantly criticise and undermine someone is unthinkable. It's all very well saying things, but it's the extent to which the intent to hurt, maim and destroy has become acceptable in this country that I find very difficult to tolerate. We have always given people a fair go and we are certainly very good at getting people to pull their head in. We have never been this cruel. The same seems to be happening to Shane Warne. At the moment it seems to be okay to victimise and target people until they fall over. I hate that. It's a horrible way to treat people. Treating others like quarry isn't very worthy of us. Maybe what goes around will come around?