Latham complained that she'd been asking for money from private donors while receiving $5000 a pop for speaking engagements through a celebrity speakers' bureau. He implied that the rapid turnover of staff and board members was because of the way she behaved. He suggested her use of a Victorian government minister's car was wrong. Batty was devastated by the attacks. She, whose son Luke was bashed to death by his father at cricket practice in 2014. She who had no experience of public life, suddenly appointed Australian of the Year. She who spoke 300 times during that year, who wanted nothing more than to talk to people about how we can all work together to stop family violence. On Monday and Tuesday, as the stories emerged about Latham's claims, widely discredited, Batty sat at home, weeping, feeling isolated and alone. It's been just two years since Luke died and I know she still has a little shrine in his room, a little Ikea shelf with pieces of Lego he made, his slippers, hats, toys, his favourite books. She wrote on the Luke Batty Foundation Facebook page: "It's been a difficult few days trying to understand why someone wants to attack you so much and try to accuse you of things that are so not true. "It has dragged me down since I've known Mark Latham was digging to discredit me.

"I feel violated." Again. She has been violated again. Latham is not Batty's toenail. He is a bitter, angry man whose career is a series of failures, who cannot find one tiny skerrick of kindness towards the woman who lost everything when her only child was murdered before her eyes. It's not his first attack on Batty. And judging by his track record, it won't be his last. There were the aggressive tweets about her from his @realmarklatham account. In January he said domestic violence was a tool of a feminist left and rallied against what he called "the curse of political correctness in Australia".

And he has form when it comes to publicly attacking women. He mocked doctor, lawyer and former journalist Lisa Pryor for her honest comments about motherhood (that ended up with a settlement and an apology in The Australian Financial Review). Pryor's legal team argued that Latham's column conveyed a number of defamatory meanings, including that "the plaintiff, a mother, does not love her children". He's taken aim at Georgina Dent of Women's Agenda, Clementine Ford and Sky News' Laura Jayes. He's reviled Guardian columnist Van Badham – left-feminism is essentially selfish – and transgressed against noted transgender activist, commentator and cricket writer Catherine McGregor by describing her as he/she. His rage is unstoppable. His former chief of staff, Mike Richards, described Latham as a "narcissistic and ­paranoid personality" prone to anger, rage, envy and resentment. So, what of the other player in this character assassination?

Jones is notorious for his comments about former prime minister Julia Gillard. "The woman's off her tree and quite frankly they should shove her and Bob Brown in a chaff bag and take them as far out to sea as they can and tell them to swim home," he said in July 2012. And later that year: "Every person in the caucus of the Labor Party knows that Julia Gillard is a liar, everybody. I will come to that in a moment. The old man recently died a few weeks ago of shame. To think that he has a daughter who told lies every time she stood for Parliament." Let's not forget this is the man who told us: "Women are destroying the joint." So it's clear 2GB thinks this kind of behaviour is OK. I wonder if the majority of the audience thinks these attacks on a woman so brutalised by family violence are justified. Just a reminder for Jones and Latham: Luke Batty was bashed to death at cricket practice in 2014. Your lives have survived scandals and losses and failures. Her life is forever diminished by the loss of her beloved son.

Jones egged Latham on. Ooh, the treasurer resigned because of a problem with the accounts? Not according to that former treasurer, Anthea West, who told Fairfax Media she resigned because the workload of the new foundation was more than she could fit into the one day she had allocated to the role of treasurer. "I resigned because I was doing all the administration as well as all the donation receipting," West said. West, a practising tax accountant with 30 years' experience denied there was any missing money. Did Batty ask for donations while at the same time getting paid for public engagements?

Just so you know, Australians of the year don't get paid to do the work that comes with that honour; the Pratt Foundation made it possible for Batty to survive that year. And how generous of her to do 80 per cent of her speaking engagements for free. Jeremy Lasek, former CEO of the Australia Day Council, is appalled by Latham's continued attacks on Batty. "It is unfortunate that someone who has changed the nation so much for the better – for no personal gain at all and coming out of a great tragedy – should be facing crazy suggestions like this," he said. Now, what about the turnover in staff and board members?

Latham accused Batty of being a bully. Yes, it's true that many of the original board members resigned. Some were too busy, some were inexperienced. At least one staff member was "let go" for reasons that aren't clear. The Luke Batty Foundation has a full board with serious board experience, chaired by Andrew Fairley AM, a lawyer with significant governance experience who chaired the Law Council of Australia Superannuation Committee for 10 years. He said: "I am satisfied that there has been no financial misconduct on the part of Rosie Batty or any others on her behalf regarding foundation assets." Batty a bully? We might have to measure that against Latham's behaviour. What of the government car? Is it shades of Victoria's Corrections Minister Steve Herbert who had pet dogs Patch and Ted chauffeured from home to country? Nope. Nope. Nope.