Do we like Jacqui Lambie?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Real good on veterans and some rights, but rough comments on refugees and trans people and mixed votes on LGBTQ+ protections keep her mid-table.
Lambie grew up in public housing in Tasmania's north-west after her parents split when she was 13, and by her own telling was a wild kid. She joined the army, served about ten years, then left and spent years clashing with Veterans' Affairs over how she was treated. That anger is what drove her into politics, and she has said she had to be in the Senate and part of the balance of power to change anything.
She won a Senate seat in 2013 for Clive Palmer's party, quit it in 2014 and built her own, the Jacqui Lambie Network. She lost the seat in 2017 over the dual citizenship mess, then won it back in 2019. In 2024 her former office manager Tammy Tyrrell left the network to go independent: Tyrrell said Lambie had suggested she go it alone, while Lambie wished her well and said their working relationship wouldn't change.
She's had her blow-ups. In 2021 Qantas banned her for six months after she allegedly abused staff at Melbourne Airport; Nine News reported she allegedly used a homophobic slur about its gay CEO. She denied the slur, but apologised for her behaviour, calling it “totally uncalled for and totally unacceptable”. Separately, her former chief of staff and his wife alleged bullying in a letter to the then prime minister; in 2022 the Federal Court found she had sacked them fairly and rejected their claims.
On the harm test she's a close call. After the 2015 Paris attacks she questioned Australia's Syrian refugee intake and suggested the Grand Mufti should wear an electronic tag, which drew criticism. In 2019 on reality TV she said you're born either male or female and slammed Tasmania's moves on changing birth certificates. Her voting record is a mix: They Vote For You has her backing a same-sex marriage plebiscite, splitting on LGBTI protections, and generally voting against transgender rights and protections, though she also voted to take children out of immigration detention.
The latest stoush is with One Nation. The party put out a cartoon video about her that was widely condemned and later taken down. Hanson first defended it, then said she hadn't seen it and apologised, saying it “wasn't as tastefully done as it could've been”. Lambie called the cartoons “bloody awful” and says the creator, now a One Nation candidate in Victoria, shouldn't be in parliament; he says he'll apologise “if I ever do something that is apology-worthy”.
So: where you land depends on which Lambie you weigh. She's fiery, blunt and sometimes cops it for a comment that goes too far, and her record on refugees and trans people isn't one to hang a banner on. But she owns her slips, fights for people the system chews up, and has done it for over a decade. Support with eyes open.