Jacqui Lambie’s former chief of staff tells court they had ‘no trust’ in each other

Senator Jacqui Lambie’s ‘wild behaviour’ led her top staffer to lose trust fast and at times he was ‘left weeping’, a court has heard.

Former Lambie staffers, Rob and Fern Messenger.

The former top Adviser to Jacqui Lambie told a court there was “no trust” between the two of them, but the senator was “heavily reliant” on him as she navigated her tumultuous first term in federal parliament.

During this time that Ms Lambie allegedly bullied staff, swore excessively, and engaged in other workplace misconduct, her former chief of staff Rob Messenger and former office manager Fern Messenger claim.

But Mr Messenger conceded on Wednesday he is unable to point to a paper trail for at least some of the allegations he has levelled against his former boss.

The Messengers, a married couple, have taken Senate powerbroker Lambie and the Commonwealth to court, alleging they were unfairly dismissed as reprisal for their numerous complaints about her behaviour towards staff.

Mr Messenger said “there was no trust“ between the two of them from about November 2014 to the time he was dismissed in May 2017.

“Once Senator Lambie started exhibiting wild behaviour, my level of trust in Senator Lambie‘s personal decisions went way down,” he told the Federal Court on Wednesday.

“I didn’t trust her to drive! Especially when she wanted to drive right after having eye surgery.”

He said the “degree of trust” that did exist decreased as “crises happened”.

He agreed part of his job was to counsel and manage Ms Lambie and said as the only member of her team with parliamentary experience she had relied on him heavily after entering parliament.

The court heard allegations Jacqui Lambie bullied staff and left her former chief of staff weeping at times.

Ms Lambie’s “wild mood swings” and allegedly inappropriate behaviour began when she gave an famous interview to Hobart radio station Heart FM in which she asked a listener if he was “well hung”, Mr Messenger told the court earlier this week.

This incident, just three weeks after Ms Lambie entered parliament in mid-2014, was the genesis of her alleged misconduct, he claims.

Under cross-examination from the senator’s barrister Nick Harrington Mr Messenger admitted that he had advised her to go on the BBC and talk about the comments after a furore broke out.

But he insisted he was “appalled” and “mortified” by her comments and was simply trying to “clean up the mess”.

“When you can’t put the water back into the tap or the genie back into the bottle, you’ve then got to devise a situation on how to make lemonade out of lemons, Mr Harrington,” he said.

He said Ms Lambie’s “great pride” during the period in which she held the balance of power was “her ability to scare other politicians”.

Rob Messenger told the court he was intimidated by Jacqui Lambie. Picture: Peter Lorimer

Asked if she had intimidated him, Mr Messenger said “At times I was left weeping”.

He agreed he could not point to any email in which he had complained about this behaviour, nor about her comments on radio.

The Messengers claim Ms Lambie engaged in workplace bullying, swore excessively, made sexual references, drank to excess, was glib about safety concerns and had unreasonable work expectations from her staff.

Ms Lambie is defending the proceedings and expected to give her version of events in court.

The hearing continues.

Originally published as Jacqui Lambie’s former chief of staff tells court they had ‘no trust’ in each other