Senator Jacqui Lambie’s quest to get “ordinary people” into politics at the state level is over after her party imploded in Tasmania five months after an election.
Now-independents Miriam Beswick and Rebekah Pentland, two of three Jacqui Lambie Network candidates voted in at the March state poll, were ejected from the party by Lambie on Saturday for being “too cosy” with the Liberal minority government and for not holding the state infrastructure minister to account.
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has pulled back from running candidates at the state level. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
It is not the first time MPs have left the network – fellow Tasmanian and senator Tammy Tyrrell departed in March, saying Lambie was dissatisfied with her performance.
Lambie said she planned to continue running candidates at Senate elections in NSW, Queensland and South Australia.
But she said the weekend’s drama signalled the end of her network running candidates at state level.
“What I’ve done is try to get ordinary Tasmanians into politics,” Lambie told ABC radio today.
“To ordinary Tasmanians who want a shot in politics now, I am not big enough to make that happen.”
Lambie was elected in 2013 as a candidate for Clive Palmer’s party but left the next year and registered her own party in 2015.
She indicated her network did not have the resources to help inexperienced politicians but would again back Andrew Jenner, the sole remaining network MP in Tasmania’s parliament, if he wanted to run at the next election.
The network picked up 6.7 per cent of the primary vote at the March Tasmanian election, capitalising on a 12 per cent swing against the Liberal government.
Beswick and Pentland on Tuesday inked a fresh deal to support the Liberals, who hold just 14 of 35 lower-house seats.
The pair accused Lambie of not consulting when weighing in on state issues and not respecting their autonomy.
AAP