Jacqui Lambie defends vaccine spray aimed at Pauline Hanson

Jacqui Lambie has stood by her outburst at Pauline Hanson while taking aim at anti-vaxxers who have abused her staff.

Federal senator Jacqui Lambie has defended her passionate outburst about vaccines in parliament while declaring people who abuse politicians and their staff are “un-Australian”.

The crossbench senator issued a blistering spray aimed at Pauline Hanson on Monday after the One Nation leader introduced a bill to ban vaccine mandates imposed by the states.

She slammed One Nation as the “enemy of healthcare workers” and told Ms Hanson to “be an adult and put others before yourself”.

“Being held accountable for your actions isn’t called discrimination, it’s called being, you wouldn’t believe it, a goddamn bloody adult,” Ms Lambie said during the fiery debate.

In a chaotic start to the final fortnight of parliament for 2021, five Coalition senators crossed the floor against the government to back the failed “vaccine discrimination” bill.

Despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison having no constitutional power to stop state vaccine requirements, Liberal senators Gerard Rennick, Alex Antic and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, and Nationals senators Matt Canavan and Sam McMahon backed the controversial “vaccine discrimination” bill.

One Nation’s Pauline Hanson proposed a bill to stop vaccine mandates. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Liberal senator Eric Abetz abstained, while the remaining government senators joined Labor, the Greens and the rest of the cross bench in voting against Ms Hanson’s bill.

Ms Lambie was unapologetic for her fiery speech on breakfast radio this morning and stood by what she said, defending the rights of pub and club owners to turn away the unvaccinated to protect their staff and patrons.

“Any pub owner, club owner, they can say ‘I have a choice here, if you’re not vaccinated you’re not coming into my pub’,” Ms Lambie told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

“We’ve been through hell and high water for well over 18 months now and people make choices … sometimes that’s going to affect people in a negative way but that’s the way it is.”

Ms Lambie shared she’d received a lot of feedback from her passionate speech and warned people sending nasty messages that it was “un-Australian”.

Jacqui Lambie criticised Pauline Hanson in the Senate.

“We did get some feedback but we also get the nasties, which is really unfortunate,” she said.

“It’s fine to me, but it’s really not fair … if you want to abuse people, that is your will and your right but please don’t abuse my staff.”

“It can get really vicious, that is really uncalled for, that’s really un-Australian.”

Ms Lambie also took aim at Senate colleague Ms Hanson again, warning her not to “instil fear” into people and accusing her of using the issue to drum up support ahead of the election next year.

“It really bothers me … that is not on,” she said.

“I will not play Russian roulette with people’s lives, I just won’t do it … if Pauline Hanson can live with that, that’s her choice.”

Division within the Morrison Government over vaccine mandates is threatening to derail plans to push religious discrimination, voter ID and other controversial bills through the senate this year.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison was branded “weak by Pauline Hanson”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Morrison, who was branded “weak” by Ms Hanson, shrugged off the division, citing the Coalition’s long history of not punishing MPs who crossed the floor on issues “they feel strongly about”.

“We don’t agree with the measures that were in that bill, which would indeed threaten funding for hospitals and schools to states,” he said. “But I respect the fact that individual members from time to time will express a view and they’ll vote accordingly.”

But the failure of Ms Hanson’s bill was not the end of Mr Morrison’s problems, with Mr Rennick and Mr Antic indicating they would abstain from all government legislation in protest at vaccine mandates.

This combined with One Nation’s threats to block bills for the same reason would leave the government without the numbers required to pass any legislation Labor and the Greens opposed.

It is understood the government plans to stick to national security legislation likely to have more bipartisan support in the coming days, and may only “test” the threats of the renegade Liberal senators later in the week when tensions have eased.

Senators Matt Canavan and Gerard Rennick voted against the bill. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

If Mr Rennick and Mr Antic abstain or do not show up, the government would be forced to reconsider if it would bring on a vote for more controversial bills, such as an electoral integrity proposal to introduce voter ID laws and a crackdown on charities engaging in unlawful trespass.

One government source said it was possible the two Senators would only “selectively” abstain from votes, and still back the controversial issues they were in favour of.

But Mr Rennick indicated on Monday night he would abstain from all legislation.

The Senate stand-off could derail the government’s last two sitting weeks of the year, leaving limited time to pass legislation before the 2022 federal election is called for May at the latest.

Labor will seek to wedge the rebel Coalition Senators this week, with Queensland Senator Murray Watt saying it would be a test for Ms Hanson and Mr Rennick about “whether their word means anything”.

“If Pauline Hanson and Gerard Rennick back down and decide to vote with the government on legislation over the next fortnight, then it just shows that their word means nothing at all,” he said.

Mr Morrison was also forced to clarify comments he made during Question Time on Monday when Labor sought to reheat the controversy surrounding his decision to take a holiday in Hawaii with his family during the early weeks of the 2019 Summer Bushfires.

Labor asked Mr Morrison why his office had reportedly “lied” about his whereabouts at the time, to which the prime minister said he had texted Labor leader Anthony Albanese and “told him where he was going”.

Senator Gerard Rennick in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Mr Albanese challenged this account, telling parliament Mr Morrison had only said he was going on leave.

Mr Morrison then offered further explanation, confirming he had not told Mr Albanese the “destination” of where he was going.

“I simply communicated to him that I was taking leave,” Mr Morrison said.

Also on Monday, the government announced that from December 1, all valid visa holders, including skilled workers, humanitarian arrivals, and students who are fully vaccinated would no longer have to apply for an exemption to enter Australia.

This is expected to bring at least 200,000 people into the country to kickstart the economy, including more than 162,000 students, 50,000 workers and 11,700 people with humanitarian visas.