Jacqui Lambie tells of battle with addiction, suicide attempt and life as single mum in Australian Story interview
OUTSPOKEN Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie has opened up about her struggles as a single mum, her battle with addiction and a suicide attempt.
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OUTSPOKEN Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie has opened up about her struggles as a single mother, her battle with addiction and a suicide attempt in her most candid interview yet.
Lambie, who gave a fiery maiden speech in Parliament last week, allowed the ABC’s Australian Story program to go behind the scenes with her at work in Canberra and at home with her family in Burnie, Tasmania.
The 42-year-old described how her youngest child, Dylan, was her “main carer” at the age of just seven after she slipped into a downward spiral of depression and began to abuse alcohol and prescription drugs.
A debilitating injury during a 1997 training exercise while carrying a heavy weight on her back ended her much-loved career as a military police officer.
She was forced to go on a disability pension after the Department of Verterna Affiars terminated her incapacity payment and ended up, in the words of her son, “shutting herself off from the world”.
“I got worse then the psychological side of it started to set in. Depression basically and then, you know, eventually over five or six years then it went into alcohol abuse, pharmaceutical,” Senator Lambie said.
Senator Lambie’s son, Dylan, said his mother “moped around at home” as she became increasingly “shut off from the world”.
“Obviously she had no money because she wasn’t working,” he said. “She was sore all the time, so she didn’t really go anywhere.”
Lambie said her son turned to drugs at the ag of 13 as he struggled to deal with the responsibilities foisted upon him at an early age.
“By the time he was 13 he was, he was taking drugs and, um, you know? So you’re trying to deal with yourself and trying to deal with him. And, yeah he, he, um. Yeah, he’s paid the price for that.”
In 2009, Lambie’s long fight with the Department of Veterans Affairs — who accused her of “malingering” — drove her to attempt suicide by walking out in front of car, she said.
“Most days you’ll wake up and think I’ve really got to take my life. I’m of no benefit to my own children let alone anybody else,” she said.
“I’d written a letter to the boys each and left them in my drawer and I just said, ‘Right here’s a perfect opportunity’.
“I had a few drinks and off I went. I walked out in front of a car, I’d had enough, I’d had a gutful. That was it, I was finished, I was gone.”
The Senator lost her two front teeth in the crash, which left her injured and badly scarred. But the incident proved a turning point and led to her “getting back off the alcohol”.
“So then I got psychological help over the next 18 months. They were able to put me onto a great pain management specialist and then that’s when everything started to turn around for me.
“Coming back off the pharmaceuticals, getting back off the alcohol, because I no longer needed it for a pain reliever, and just cleaning right up.”
Senator Lambie, who was born and bred in Devonport, describes her family as battlers.
“We haven’t been born with silver spoons in our mouths, um, and we’ve had to live that diversity and it hasn’t always been fun and it hasn’t always been passed to us on a silver platter.”
She admitted that it had taken her a while to trust her party leader Clive Palmer, who she said was a “larger than life character”.
“I think Clive Palmer needs to be a lot more honest across the table with me and stop clowning around at times because that really annoys me.
“I’m a person of action and I want it done and I want to know what’s going on. I don’t back down to Clive Palmer and I shouldn’t have to. Even a billionaire needs to be told every now and then,” she said.
Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14
Originally published as Jacqui Lambie tells of battle with addiction, suicide attempt and life as single mum in Australian Story interview
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