Senator Jacqui Lambie banned by Qantas for six months following vile slur against CEO Alan Joyce

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has been booted from the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge over a vile rant aimed at the airline’s CEO.

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has been grounded by Qantas for six months after a Chairman’s Lounge rant over her “p**sy power” that included homophobic slurs that the airline’s CEO was “a p**f”.

Senator Lambie has issued a grovelling public apology over the rant today, which she revealed followed a “bad day” where she backed into another car and copped a speeding ticket.

The row follows a blow up at the front desk of the Chairman’s Lounge on March 25 that involved Senator Lambie becoming angry when told she couldn’t access the invitation-only luxury lounge.

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has been grounded by Qantas for six months. Picture: Lucas Muro

She does not deny that she told staff that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who is happily married to his New Zealand partner Shane Lloyd after campaigning for same sex marriage laws, was a homosexual.

“Your CEO is a p**f!”, Senator Lambie told appalled staff who were trying to help her. She is also accused of going on a rant about her “p**sy power”.

Senator Lambie said today she regretted the remarks and they were utterly unacceptable.

“It had been a long few weeks up in parliament. It’s just been a really, really long year. Basically I just blew my stack and unfortunately there were a couple of Qantas staff members that wore that,” Ms Lambie told the Today show.

Senator Lambie’s comments towards the Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. Picture: Jeremy Piper/NCA NewsWire

“They should never have wore that and it was really unfair of me to do that to them. So once again, I’m extremely apologetic for my behaviour for that few minutes.

“I have apologised profusely. I went on a rant. I deserve everything that I got from Qantas. “I’ve tried to apologise to those staff members. That ban will stay. I deserve every bit of that ban. And once again I’m profusely apologetic to those staff members that were involved.”

Senator Jacqui Lambiewas was booted out of the Qantas Chairman’s lounge. Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images.

Regarded as a step above the Qantas Lounge, the Chairman’s Lounge is accessed by invitation only and generally is only available to politicians, celebrities and CEOs.

As a result of the six month flight ban Ms Lambie now has to rely on Virgin flights to get from Tasmania to Canberra for parliamentary sitting weeks.

She said she wasn’t in her usual frame of mind at the time of the outburst because of pain medication she was prescribed for a longstanding back injury.

The Tasmanian senator has previously battled depression and addiction to painkillers but she said her back inquiry was no excuse for her behaviour.

“It is empty, it is dark and it is cold and it’s a very lonely place to be,” she said last year about her past addiction to painkillers.

Senator Lambie. Picture: David Swift/NCA NewsWire

Senator Lambie admitted to buying painkillers like Australians did “toilet paper during COVID”, drinking up to six bottles of wine a week and having panic attacks, as she struggled to get support from Veteran’s Affairs over a decade ago.

“I used to look at myself and I was this little charcoal thing in a corner, there was nothing left of me, I was gone,” she said.

“I would just be staring up at the sky saying to God: ‘Look c’mon mate, I don’t get it, look just take me,’

“There’s no point in me being here on earth.”

Senator Lambie said she had “done the crime” in terms of the Qantas outburst and was happy to cop the consequences.