Jacqui Lambie ‘wants to be Queen of Australia’ says Dio Wang
PALMER United Party senator Dio Wang has spoken out over the row between rogue senator Jacqui Lambie and PUP leader Clive Palmer, attacking as “a disgrace” Senator Lambie’s proposal to vote no to all legislation over defence force pay and speculating that she wants to be Queen of Australia.
“Maybe she is frustrated that she is not a Queen of the country but the fact is we can only do what we can do and by her making such blunt statements publicly she is effectively putting the government in a corner and giving the government less room to move,” Mr Wang said in an interview on ABC radio in Perth today.
Mr Wang acknowledged his party had been damaged by the public fallout between Mr Palmer and the Tasmanian senator. Senator Lambie is at odds with the partyroom over her proposal that PUP should block all legislation until ADF members get a pay rise.
“It’s just that Senator Lambie is probably not very familiar with the internal party process and she came out to demand that all the senators, all PUP senators including the party leader, support her position which is for a good cause — we want better pay for ADF personnel and I even want better pay for teachers nurses and policemen — but saying no to all the legislation in the parliament is not the right way to do it.”
Mr Wang spoke after Mr Palmer yesterday challenged Senator Lambie over the party leadership.
Two crossbench senators — Bob Day and David Leyonhjelm — invited Senator Lambie to consider forming a new balance-of-power alliance with them after Mr Palmer called her a “drama queen” and expelled her chief of staff Rob Messenger from the Palmer United Party.
Mr Wang said: “When we get together as a team we need to figure out who is the most suitable as a leader … it’s not a question for me, I am pretty sure Clive Palmer is the better leader”.
Mr Wang said Ms Lambie was very passionate about certain issues and not very keen to hear different opinions on some issues.
“Of course I would want us to be as united as possible and to be frank with you having a parliamentarian getting paid two thousand grand (sic) a year taxpayer money for doing nothing but to vote no to everything is a disgrace,” he said.
“That’s the bit I don’t understand because we support better pay for personnel but Jacqui needs to understand we, as Senators, have limited powers.”
Mr Wang confirmed relations were now at the point where Mr Palmer and Senator Lambie were talking to each other through the media.
“That is the bit I am really frustrated about. If you were a mature party you would have talked to your party members and colleagues internally and try to sort out the problems internally,” he said.
“Jacqui needs to learn a bit how to work in a team and when it comes to a time that she was defeated in the party room and she should be comfortable to accept the defeat.
“Any issues take it to the party room let’s discuss it and if you are defeated in the party room don’t feel so bad.”
Mr Wang said he would be unhappy if Senator Lambie quit because he wanted the party to be reunited. He said he wanted her to be successful and not end up a sad story.
“I think the way it is headed it is a likely outcome,” he said.
Meanwhile Senator Lambie has hunkered down, declining to respond to any claims made by Senator Wang or her PUP colleagues.
“I’ll be focusing all my energies on getting a better deal for Tasmania, the ADF and our veterans,” she said.
In a newly released media statement revealing the wording of Senator Lambie’s draft private member’s bill, which would link any Defence pay increase to that given to politicians, the Tasmanian said a “lone voice” could still be influential.
“My critics have said that I’ll just be a lone voice in parliament,” she says. “But what they fail to understand is that, putting aside the unique make of today’s Senate, a lone voice, armed with the facts, passion and the truth in our parliament — a great chamber of democratic debate — can influence and change the course of history for the better.”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/politics-news/jacqui-lambie-wants-to-be-queen-of-au...
