Lambie lashes ‘fake’ website set up by Liberals
Senator Jacqui Lambie has condemned a Liberal Party website which uses her image and a domain name which suggests it is part of her official campaign.
Tasmania
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Senator Jacqui Lambie has condemned a Liberal Party website which uses her image and a domain name which suggests it is part of her official campaign.
The Liberal Party is cybersquatting at lambienetwork.com. The Lambie Network’s official website is at lambienetwork.com.au.
The fake site features an image of Senator Lambie, a fake logo featuring a map of Tasmania torn in half a heading saying “the facts this election.
“The Jacqui Lambie Network has no policies and no plan for the future of Tasmania. If you don’t know what they stand for, don’t vote for them,” it says.
Senator Lambie said she was “floored” by the dishonesty and said those behind it should be sacked. Her party is running candidates in four electorates at the March 23 state election.
“I just thought seriously, we’ve got no laws against this stuff?” she said.
“You’re using my image, the logo, and I think because it’s under my family name that upsets me more than anything.
“I actually felt like they just ripped my clothes off … I just felt really dirty. It shouldn’t be me feeling dirty. It should be them. Why would they lower themselves that much?”
Senator Lambie said the decision to attack her party in such a fashion made no sense.
“The other thing which blows me away is if you want to form government, you might need some of my guys. Why would you be so stupid?” she said.
“Who’s making those decisions. Where’s Jeremy Rockliff’s integrity?
“Whoever is running this stuff in the Liberal Party should be removed immediately and if they have any integrity at all, they would shut that down today and pass it back to me.”
Section 197 of the Electoral Act bans the publication of misleading and deceptive electoral matter.
It is an offence to “publish on the internet, or permit or authorise the publishing on the internet of, any electoral matter that is intended to, is likely to or has the capacity to mislead or deceive an elector in or in relation to the recording of his or her vote.”
The penalty includes six months prison or a $39,000 fine or both.
The site lambienetwork.com was first registered in March 2015 and last renewed in March 2023 with a US based internet domain provider.
The name of the registrant is listed as “private”.
Site contains an authorisation in tiny letters at the bottom “Authorised by P. Coulson, Suite 4C, 33 Salamanca Place, Hobart.”
Peter Coulson is the state director of the Liberal Party.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff denied the advertising was a blight on the Liberal Party.
“We have every right to point out the policy failings of all political parties,” he said.
“And particularly when it comes to in this case, the Jacqui Lambie party, who have firstly said they’d have no policies, and then in desperation their policies appear which appear to be anti-job, anti-salmon, anti wind farm and anti forestry.”
The tactics have already attracted a strong response from Mercury readers:
“The Liberal Party has displayed the ethics of a long-dead fish with its near identical rip-off of the Jacqui Lambie Network’s website. Whoever is implicated in this grubby little scheme should be ashamed of themselves. This kind of cheap behaviour needs to be legislated against by whoever wins the forthcoming election.”
Bob Holderness-Roddam
Austins Ferry
“Dear P. Coulson, I am not a supporter of the Jacqui Lambie Network.
I am, I hope, a moderately sane and sensible Tasmanian who believes in a fair go.
I imagine you did not dream up the stunt of the web page ‘lambienetwork.com’. However you are the agent authorising the scam. I can only guess this is a reflection of desperation on the part of a party destitute of both ideas and morals.
Shame on you and shame on the party you represent.”
Nicholas Cummings
Riverside
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