Tasmanian Liberal candidate caught in cross-fire between Rockliff and Jacqui Lambie Network

A wave of disgruntled protestors targeted an innocent Liberal candidate on his private number after a bungled campaign against Jacqui Lambie.

Senator Jacqui Lambie’s party, the Jacqui Lambie Network, has become the subject on an online impersonation campaign by the Tasmanian Liberals. Picture: Rohan Thomson/TWAM

Senator Jacqui Lambie has criticised the Tasmanian Liberals for building a fake campaign page to smear her Jacqui Lambie Network, inadvertently bringing a wave of harassment onto one Liberal candidate.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s Tasmanian Liberals are heading to an early election next Saturday in an effort to reconsolidate a majority government. With a growing influence from minor parties such as the Greens and Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN), more messaging from the incumbent government has focused on targeting these minor parties.

The state Liberal party had previously bought the domain for lambienetwork.com. The JLN work from the domain lambienetwork.com.au, but refused to buy the alternative domain in the past as its current owners were alleged to have retailed the site for $20,000.

A spokesperson for the Tasmanian Liberal party disputed the $20,000 figure and alleged the site was purchased by the party in April 2023 for $34.95 from online domain registry GoDaddy. The JLN claim the site was purchased this year on March 10.

The false address was used to host a parody site of the JLN, claiming it had “no policies and no plan for the future of Tasmania”.

Jacqui Lambie campaigning on the streets of Burnie, for votes in the Tasmanian election.

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie, who heads and founded the Network, criticised the tactic.

“They are so worried that they’ll have the Jacqui Lambie Network in the state parliament to hold them to account, that they’ve stooped to new lows this election campaign,” she said on Twitter.

A post from her party labelled the campaign stunt as an example of excess Liberal Party donations.

“They are so scared of the Jacqui Lambie Network that they will spend whatever it takes. We’d love to know which donor funded them. But we never will,” a statement from the Network reads.

“The Liberal Party walked away from their own political donation law reforms in the last state parliament, leaving Tasmania with the weakest political disclosure donation laws in the country.”

The election tactic was previously criticised after a number of automated texts were used to send out messaging against the Network and drive users to the mock campaign site.

“Jacqui Lambie’s candidates don’t have any policies,” the message reads.

“They want your vote, but don’t have a plan. How can you vote for someone when you don’t know what they stand for?”

Liberal Party message sent to Lyons voters mistakenly from Franklin candidate Aldo Antolli. Picture: supplied

The automatic text, which was sent to an estimated 7,000 voters in Lyons, came from the private number of Liberal Franklin candidate Aldo Antolli without his knowledge.

Mr Antolli went on to receive a number of abusive texts and phone calls.

“I’m very sorry, but it appears someone has attached my private mobile number to their message as some monumental screw up,” Mr Antolli said in a message, as reported by the Hobart Mercury.

“I have received endless abusive messages for something that I am not behind or had anything to do with.

“Sorry it happened to you, and very (sic) distressing for me.”

Senator Lambie’s party is expecting a windfall of seats in the state election after picking up a second federal senate spot in the 2022 federal election.