CANBERRA, July 6 AAP - The abuse federal Labor leader Mark Latham levelled against people was worse than anything Paul Keating ever dished out, Treasurer Peter Costello said today. Mr Costello said that during his 15 years in parliament he had never come across anyone as abusive as Mr Latham - even former Labor prime minister Paul Keating. "The one thing that I would say about Mr Latham ... is that over the years he's dished out a lot of abuse in parliament," he told the John Laws radio program. "I've been in the parliament nearly 15 years, I've never heard anyone as abusive as Mark Latham. "Paul Keating had a good turn of phrase but he wasn't personally abusive in the way that Mark Latham has been. "Mark Latham set out deliberately to abuse people and he did a good job of it." An emotional Mr Latham yesterday appealed to the media to leave his family alone as he promised he had nothing to hide about his past. The Labor leader has been under intense personal scrutiny amid rumours about his personal life, his temper and his record as mayor of Liverpool in Sydney's west. Mr Costello said he was not interested in Mr Latham's personal life, but added the Labor leader's work with Liverpool council as mayor was fair game. He said the handling of the council showed Mr Latham could not be trusted with a federal budget worth $200 billion or the national economy worth $800 billion. "If you make a mistake in relation to the budget or in relation to the running of the economy, interest rates go up and people lose their jobs," he said. "It takes a bit of discipline and it takes a bit of skill. "I'm saying ... in my view, Mark Latham doesn't have the financial management record or skills to properly run the Australian economy." Mr Costello denied there was a Liberal Party dirt unit digging through Mr Latham's past. He said he doubted an alleged video of Mr Latham's buck's night - the existence of which Mr Latham has denied - would hurt the opposition leader. "I don't think the press would regard it as interesting, I don't think it would be damaging," he said. "I'm not interested in videos, I'm not interested in people's marriages, because I don't think they bear on politics."
