On Probation

The occasions on which I agree with a Liberal MP are rare, but this week, I’ll make an exception. I'm with Liberal MP Craig Laundy and his call for Senator Jacqui Lambie to resign if she won’t take her job as a Senator seriously. It’s impossible to know what goes on inside Senator Lambie’s head – if it’s a refusal to take the job seriously, if it's a matter of style, or if she’s just as dumb as a box of hair and can’t handle the more cerebral areas of the job...like thinking before she speaks. It doesn’t matter; it’s time she faced the unpleasant truth: she’s not cutting it as a Senator. Not yet, and perhaps not ever.

Senator Jacqui Lambie could be the love-child that Cory Bernardi and Sarah Palin never had, the very model of a xenophobic little Aussie battler that Pauline Hanson always dreamed of being. She is conservative talkback’s perfect listener – at home all day with enough personal phone-in material to last for months, an axe to grind and no verbal censor. 

There is something to be said for consistency. Her style of her public comments prior to the election has continued unchecked since she became a Senator less than four months ago. Now, the microphone is bigger. Make all the jokes you like about Senator Lambie; there’s an abundance to be made. Jacqui Lambie is her own worst enemy: she is mouthy, ignorant and refuses to learn.

Just this week, she declined an invitation from Liberal MP Craig Laundy to visit a Mosque with him. As part of their response to increasing anti-Islam sentiment in parts of the community – something which Senator Lambie herself is driving with her oblivious rants – many Mosques are opento the public this weekend, in the hope that non-Muslims will take the opportunity to visit, and learn more about Islam with tours of the Mosque, displays and question and answer sessions.  

But despite the invitation from Mr Laundy, it’s not forJacqui Lambie. She said that she would feel uncomfortable in a Mosque because she is Catholic. I’m pretty sure that no-one is expecting her to face Mecca, drop to her knees and pray to Allah, but ultimately the choice is hers. 

It’s a shame, because what the Senator knows about Islam would fit in a thimble, and still leave enough space for a finger.

Even Andrew Bolt has criticized Senator Lambie, reprinting her fascinating insight into what makes a man appealing. 

Bogans will cheer, but it is both shameful and alarming that this kind of woman has a critical say in the running of this country:

SENATOR Jacqui Lambie is looking for a man and she only has two requirements, they must be wealthy and well-endowed…

“They must have heaps of cash and they’ve got to have a package between their legs, let’s be honest,” Lambie said [on radio].

If Senator Lambie wants to appear on radio talking about sex, sounding like a desperate psycho-cougar-mama, that's also her choice. 

In fairness, Senator Lambie has shown an admirable commitment to Australia – well, her version of Australia – by serving in themilitary. Regrettably, that didn’t work out too well for her: a back injury, fisticuffs with a male colleague in a bar, a demotion and a medical discharge, although she says she loved her life in the army. 

Since her discharge in 2000, she didn’t work in a paid job until commencing as a Senator in July. In fact, she only coming off the disability pension earlier this year. She’d been interested in politics for some time, displaying a Kardashian-like loyalty to the Australian political establishment by joining the Labor Party, then joining the Liberal Party, then going it alone as an independent before finally joining Palmer United Party, because she needed PUP’s financial power. She wasn’t kidding – she does like men with money.

Out there in Corporate Land, almost everyone is employed on a three month probationary period in which they are expected to prove themselves to their new employer. Senator Lambie, elected with just 6.6% if the Tasmanian Senate vote, has been collecting salary of $195,130 for over three months now, and we’re still looking for indications that she can handle the job. In her interview with Gay Alcorn, Senator Lambie said 

“So it's like any job, you've got to sort of sit back for three or four months and then, all right, okay, I've figured that out. Now I'm coming in."

Clive Palmer, who promised to share his limited experience in public office to ‘mentor’ Ms Lambie on the ways of politics, might be willing to give his brazen Senator enough rope, but the Australian public, the media and Clive won't wait indefinitely. Senator Lambie has to show us what she's got – for real – or rethink this whole Senator business.

Time’s up.