Shalailah Medhora theguardian.com, Monday 24 November 2014
The Tasmanian senator will now sit as an independent and has indicated she may negotiate with the government over the abolition of the renewable energy target
Lambie addressed the Senate on Monday, announcing she would sit as an independent senator.
“Every Tasmanian I have met has urged me to put the interests of Tasmania first. I am now free to negotiate with the government and anyone else in this parliament in good faith, and with the best interests of Tasmanians,” she said.
She indicated she would be willing to negotiate with the Coalition on the abolishment of the clean energy finance corporation (CEFC) and on the renewable energy target (RET), which currently do not have enough support to get through the Senate. She also said she was open to negotiation on the reintroduction of temporary protection visas and the redefinition of who can be deemed a refugee.
But she shot down the Coalition’s higher education changes and Medicare co-payment.
Lambie said she would continue to vote against all government bills until a better pay deal for defence force personnel was offered.
“My doors are open for a Coalition members to come and speak to me so we can end this debacle once and for all,” she said.
She’s denied that she will join another party, saying: “Once bitten twice shy… I think I’ll do better on my own two feet”.
Lambie criticised the role of government leader in the Senate, Eric Abetz.
“I think I’ve made that quite clear, we don’t get on full stop.”
Abetz was bemused by the criticism, saying he wasn’t sure what brought it on, and vowing to negotiate with her as he does with other crossbenchers.
“As far as I’m concerned, it is business as usual. We will deal professionally with each and every individual crossbench Senator as they request and I said at the very beginning when we knew the make-up of the new Senate if they wanted to be dealt with as individuals we would, if they want it to be dealt with in a grouping we would accommodate that request.”
She apologised to her constituents for the uncertainty caused by the speculation around her status in PUP, and said she was sure that she and PUP leader Clive Palmer could work together in the future.
“Clive Palmer has been graced with great wealth and power by God,” she said.
The public spat between Lambie and Palmer has become increasingly bitter.
On Monday morning, before Lambie announced her resignation, Palmer accused her of being an agent, planted to infiltrate PUP.
“When you start a new party like our party, the established parties and others try to wreck it,” Palmer said. “She’s been sent in there by someone to cause trouble and I think that’s the reality of it.”
“You’ve only got to look at what happened to all the other parties, the tactics that were used to discredit them ... and there’s no reason to think that wouldn’t happen to our party,” he said.
Palmer reiterated his concerns on Channel Seven on Monday morning, accusing the senator of being “controlled by lobbyists” and seeking to “blackmail the government”.
Palmer has accused Lambie of supporting the Australian Defence Veterans party since January, and of meeting other parties and politicians, including Pauline Hanson.
“She continues to act dishonestly and lie to me and other party members to gain media attention,” Palmer said in a statement released on Sunday. “Senator Lambie’s actions seek to undermine the interests of the Australian people in preference to her own.”
Palmer said Lambie had questions to answer over whether she was receiving a disability pension from the government while being a full-time PUP senator.
Lambie did not respond to specific allegations in the Senate, but said: “I don’t have the time or the energy to be drawn into a political mudslinging contest. I will not be drawn into the game of hurtful and false personal attacks.”
In closing, she praised her constituents.
“God bless Australia, God bless my Tasmania and our beautiful southern cross.”
Lambie’s resignation makes the government’s job of getting legislation through the Senate harder. It must get six of the eight crossbench on side before bills opposed by Labor and the Greens can pass.
