Politics

Jacqui Lambie Savagely Roasted Barnaby Joyce On Last Night’s ‘Q&A’

"I'm not going to kick him while he's down", she said, before doing just that.

by Tom Clift  5 June 2018
Jacqui Lambie Barnaby Joyce

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Turns out we weren’t the only ones grossed out by that Barnaby Joyce interview. The former Deputy Prime Minister’s powwow with Channel Seven, for which he was paid a cool $150,000 (nothing problematic about that, no sir!), was a major talking point on Monday night’s episode of Q&A — and you can bet ex-senator Jacqui Lambie had plenty to say about it.

The issue of Joyce and his bad behaviour was raised by an audience member who asked the assembled panellists if they thought politicians are “too ego driven and self-serving”.

“I’m asking this after the $150,000 Barnaby Joyce interview in which he failed to answer most questions, and then said he didn’t give a shit about the political ramifications,” the woman added.

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The first response came from writer Rosie Waterland, who agreed that egos are “a huge problem in politics”.

“I think it’s a real problem when the stories being reported on politicians could just as easily be reported in tabloids,” she told the audience. “I mean I love me a bit of gossip, I’m on the gossip sites all the time, I don’t want to be reading about my elected representatives next to where I read about the Kardashians. That’s where it gets a bit icky.”

But the real serve came from former Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie. You know that friend you have that loves to give advice because they’re “just looking out for you”, but they’re really just sticking the knife in because they’re a messy bench who lives for drama? Yeah, that was Lambie.

“I am worried about this, it’s beyond a mid-life crisis,” said Lambie. “This is not the Barnaby Joyce I know. I am concerned about his mental welfare, to be honest.”

“I’m not going to sit here and kick him while he’s down and out,” she added, before proceeding to sit there and kick him while he’s down and out.

“”My heart is going out to both of them because they’re just not dealing with this very, very well. And unfortunately, when you’re in politics if you haven’t got someone on the outside that’s giving you a boot up the rear end every now and then, you’re stuck in your little bubble.”

“I don’t find him and his excuse to say that we’re away from home a lot as an excuse for what he did because I know soldiers and sailors and airmen out there who have done their fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh tour and have been away from their wives for most of five, six, ten years,” she said.

“If you can’t keep it in your pants you’re going to pay the price. It’s as simple as that.”