Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: It's been almost a decade since Jackie Lamby dramatically quit
Speaker 1: the Palme United Party. Since then, she's become a political
Speaker 1: force in Canberra and in her home state Tasmania as
Speaker 1: the leader of the Jackie Lamby Network. At the last
Speaker 1: federal election, Lamby's longtime staffer Tammy Tyrel, won a Senate spot,
Speaker 1: and at the last Tasmanian election just a few months ago,
Speaker 1: the party won three seats. But now the Jackie Lamby
Speaker 1: Network is imploding after Tyrell resigned and two of the
Speaker 1: three Tasmanian MPs were sacked. Today, senior reporter for the
Speaker 1: Saturday Paper, Rick Morton on the allegations Jackie spied on
Speaker 1: her colleagues and why she hasn't been able to hold
Speaker 1: the party together. It's Monday, September to So, Rick, I
Speaker 1: think that most of us have an idea in our
Speaker 1: mind of who Jackie Lamby is. She's the straight talking
Speaker 1: Tasmanian senator who turned her personal brand into an entire
Speaker 1: political party, the Jackie Lamby Networks. So tell me about
Speaker 1: her journey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, her story is one of the more
Speaker 2: fascinating arcs. She you know, was elected on the coattails
Speaker 2: of Clive Palmer and was pretty abrasive.
Speaker 3: You know what, that baby's made more progress in a
Speaker 3: thousand days than a Liberal party have on their own bill.
Speaker 3: That is where we're at, a three year old shameful.
Speaker 2: And so when we talk about brand Jackie Lamby and
Speaker 2: really is just who she is. You know, she is
Speaker 2: kind of the every woman and I think that's why
Speaker 2: a lot of people have warmed up to her over
Speaker 2: a long period of time now since first elected into
Speaker 2: the Senate.
Speaker 4: Having that experience of being on a single mum's pension
Speaker 4: and trying to bring up raised to boys during a
Speaker 4: really traumatic time of my life was really difficult. So
Speaker 4: to go without I know what that feels like, and
Speaker 4: it's really difficult. And somehow I had a door open.
Speaker 4: I was one of the lucky ones and I managed
Speaker 4: to be able to get through that, but many don't.
Speaker 2: And she's now got this eponymous political party, the Jacquelaemy Network,
Speaker 2: which she's fashioned in her image, and their main motto
Speaker 2: really is just giving a leg up to the little guy.
Speaker 2: They're trying to fight to keep the Barson's honest and
Speaker 2: really their overall stick is just accountability, transparency, loyalty, making
Speaker 2: sure that politicians in particular do what they say they're
Speaker 2: going to do and are open about it. It was
Speaker 2: originally founded because she wanted to get re elected to
Speaker 2: the Senate after she left Clive Palmer, and it hadn't
Speaker 2: really changed much until the twenty twenty two federal election
Speaker 2: when finally, after raining a few people in different tickets,
Speaker 2: this long time staff and Jacque Lambi Lay Timmy Tyrrell,
Speaker 2: a former office manager for Lambie, wins a Senate seat
Speaker 2: as part of the Jackie Lambi network. So suddenly there
Speaker 2: were two. And then of course we have this Tasmaniu
Speaker 2: of State election where astoundingly the Jackie Lamy network fields
Speaker 2: a bunch of candidates and they get three MPs elect.
Speaker 2: They get Andrew Jenner, who's a former mayor from a
Speaker 2: relatively small borough in the United Kingdom.
Speaker 5: We've get Miriam.
Speaker 2: Beswick, who's a small business owner type religious person from Devonport,
Speaker 2: and Rebecca Pentland who is a pharmaceutical consultant. And having
Speaker 2: three MP's in the State Parliament put them in a
Speaker 2: position of great power and influence from outsiders to king make.
Speaker 5: Its well, not career politicians.
Speaker 2: We're just normal people that have just want to try
Speaker 2: and make a difference and want to just try and
Speaker 2: bring a bit of common sense back into Parliament. So
Speaker 2: they signed this deal with the Liberal Government minority government
Speaker 2: which Jackie Lamby essentially took control of. SLASH help them
Speaker 2: negotiate and if you read it, it includes a stability
Speaker 2: protocol that requ why I have both the Liberal Government
Speaker 2: and the Jackie Lamby Network MPs to warn each other
Speaker 2: of what they're going to do, usually within twenty four
Speaker 2: hours when they intend to do it, so essentially to
Speaker 2: make life easier.
Speaker 5: For both of them.
Speaker 2: And then, of course we're not even six months into
Speaker 2: the new government and what should have been this era
Speaker 2: defining win for Jackie Lamby has turned into this near
Speaker 2: implosion filled with poison and Retrick about disloyalty and people
Speaker 2: who've betrayed the party.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so where does this begin?
Speaker 6: Rick?
Speaker 1: What were the first signs that something was going wrong
Speaker 1: within the Jackie Lamby network between her and her candidates.
Speaker 2: Really, it's five days after the state election the federal
Speaker 2: Senator Timmy Tyrrell announces that she's quitting the party. And
Speaker 2: she does it in a frankly quite a strange way.
Speaker 7: I want you to hear this from me. I've decided
Speaker 7: to leave the Jackie Lamby Network and become a senator
Speaker 7: for toast Mana in my own right as an independent.
Speaker 7: Jackie is into I hated that she's not happy with
Speaker 7: the way that I've been representing the Jackie Lamby network.
Speaker 5: So i've she does its video, she releases this statement.
Speaker 2: It's very like, oh my god, I love Jackie Lamby
Speaker 2: and I love the network so much, and I never
Speaker 2: want to heard it. But this is like a family breakdown.
Speaker 2: We still love each other, but we can't be together
Speaker 2: kind of thing.
Speaker 6: It's just, you know, like when you're in a marriage
Speaker 6: where somebody's already left, you don't want to be in
Speaker 6: there just for you know, for looks. You actually want
Speaker 6: to break out, do the right thing by the family
Speaker 6: in general, which Tasmania is my family.
Speaker 2: But Lambi also, and this is critical to note, didn't
Speaker 2: really get stuck into her. She just said, Okay, off
Speaker 2: you go.
Speaker 8: Tammy Tyrrel was sacked as a senator under your name
Speaker 8: your state party effectively lasted five months.
Speaker 4: Nobody sack Tammy Tyrrel Teme Tyrell left.
Speaker 2: When I asked Lamby Jackie Lamby about this, she was
Speaker 2: a little bit more aggressive. I guess where she's like.
Speaker 2: All I ever asked when we got her up, which
Speaker 2: was you know, got Tammy Tyrrel up in the Senate,
Speaker 2: was that she do what she said she would do,
Speaker 2: and that is put Tasmania first. And then she went
Speaker 2: she said, you know, I don't know why she doesn't
Speaker 2: just say I left because I wanted to leave and
Speaker 2: stop blaming people. There is something that went on there,
Speaker 2: no one actually really knows.
Speaker 5: So Timmy Tyrrell leaves literally five days.
Speaker 2: After the state election, and then five months after the
Speaker 2: state election, Jackie Lamby kicks out two or the three
Speaker 2: Tasmanian MPs that she only just got elected, Miriam Beswick
Speaker 2: and Rebecca Pentland. And now there is one state MP
Speaker 2: in the Tasmanian Party down from.
Speaker 1: Three, right, so she has one seemingly loyal MP left.
Speaker 1: But what happened to these other two tasmanimps, to Miriam
Speaker 1: Beswick and Rebecca Pitland.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a fascinating part of the story because
Speaker 2: it really depends on who you are. But everyone, no
Speaker 2: matter whose side thereon agrees on the fundamental truth, which
Speaker 2: is that there was a massive breakdown and the relationship
Speaker 2: between Jackie Lamby, Miriam Bethwick and Rebecca Pentland in particular
Speaker 2: had been souring for months and one of the main
Speaker 2: reasons for that was Beswick and Pentland truly believed that
Speaker 2: some of the key staff, the parliamentary staff, the highly
Speaker 2: paid staff that Lambi had scrounged around and found for them,
Speaker 2: were actually spies.
Speaker 1: Really, why did they think that?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean that I was like, oh, I can't just
Speaker 2: write that they're spies, and then everyone kept saying no,
Speaker 2: they thought they were spies, including people who are on
Speaker 2: their side, So you know, that's what they thought. Why
Speaker 2: is another matter. You know, if you ask someone like
Speaker 2: Andrew Jenna, he's the one remaining MP, he's saying, well,
Speaker 2: that's just how they felt.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: They were new to this, they didn't have any experience.
Speaker 2: They wanted to spread their wings a little bit, but
Speaker 2: these staffers were trying to advise them about how to
Speaker 2: be successful and deal with the parliament, and Beswick in
Speaker 2: Bentland just didn't believe that they had their interests at heart,
Speaker 2: even though they were in this party.
Speaker 5: They treated them terribly, according.
Speaker 2: To some sources within the party, and the staffers felt
Speaker 2: they had no choice but to just walk out. And
Speaker 2: I've tried to triangulate this as much as possible, but
Speaker 2: I ended up speaking to someone else about this.
Speaker 5: His name is Glynn Williams. He's a lawyer. He's been
Speaker 5: a Lamby.
Speaker 2: Consiglieri for over a decade. But he said there were
Speaker 2: not quoting him here, strange aberrations in the establishment of
Speaker 2: the office in Hobart. He said, I don't think that
Speaker 2: that was handled in a collaborative manner, and that must
Speaker 2: have caused confusion to everyone involved, including the staff. Now,
Speaker 2: he said he tried to fix things, that he had
Speaker 2: some frank conversations with Jackie Lamby. She told him apparently
Speaker 2: she rejected his approach in very colorful terms. Those who
Speaker 2: didn't speak for seven weeks after that. And then he
Speaker 2: says he was fired by a letter from Jackie Lamby
Speaker 2: just saying you are no longer need it, so she
Speaker 2: sacks him and then just kind of assumes the mantle
Speaker 2: of president of her own party.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: Another person gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, as much as he might want to
Speaker 2: have faith in people, you do have to start asking
Speaker 2: questions when quite a few people go missing.
Speaker 5: He's gone.
Speaker 2: They've got a new board, and Pentland and Beswick tried
Speaker 2: to get Jackie Lamby to sign an agreement saying that
Speaker 2: you will not intervene in the affairs of the State.
Speaker 5: Party and you will do this and you will do that.
Speaker 2: And Jackie Lambi's people were like, no, we're not finding that.
Speaker 5: That's this our party.
Speaker 2: And of course Lamby's office view the whole thing is
Speaker 2: in subordination. And it really ed left this wound from
Speaker 2: which it was really difficult to recover, and it fested
Speaker 2: for another three months until the weekend before last when
Speaker 2: Patlan and Beswick were just spectacularly expelled.
Speaker 1: Coming up after the break, the party splits over the
Speaker 1: Spirit of Tasmania. So Rick recently, after months of tension,
Speaker 1: including allegations of spying, Jackie Lambye sacks two of her
Speaker 1: Tasmanian MP's saying that they're not being accountable, they're not
Speaker 1: being transparent. So tell me what tipped things over? Why
Speaker 1: did this happen?
Speaker 2: Now is my favorite part because I've got to talk
Speaker 2: about boats. Two Spirits of Tasmania replacements. Now, anyone who's
Speaker 2: ever been to Tasmania on the back of a boat,
Speaker 2: will have been on the Spirit of Tasmania, these enormous
Speaker 2: ships that.
Speaker 5: Cross about straight.
Speaker 2: The government there for many, many, many years now has
Speaker 2: promised to replace the two spirits of Tasmania at a
Speaker 2: cost of like a billion dollars. So this is like
Speaker 2: and for a state by Tasmania, it's one of the
Speaker 2: biggest infrastructure projects you can possibly have. It's hugely critical
Speaker 2: for the economy, tourism but also you know, productivity in
Speaker 2: terms of the northern half of the state and access
Speaker 2: to mainland Australia.
Speaker 5: It has not gone well. The ships are five years late,
Speaker 5: they're five hundred million dollars over budget.
Speaker 8: The two new spirits were originally meant to arrive three
Speaker 8: years ago at a cost of seven hundred million dollars.
Speaker 8: That price tag has blown out to almost a.
Speaker 2: Billion, and now that they are actually close to being
Speaker 2: arriving in Tasmania, it emerges that the port in Davenport
Speaker 2: does not have a berth that can help.
Speaker 8: The ship's knew birth, that Devenport won't be ready until
Speaker 8: twenty twenty six. With the cost growing from the original
Speaker 8: estimate of ninety million dollars to three hundred and seventy
Speaker 8: five million.
Speaker 2: Despite the fact that this Tasmani owned company, tit Line,
Speaker 2: has been telling everyone that everything's going to be fine
Speaker 2: and the Infrastructure Minister, Michael Ferguson that everything's on time
Speaker 2: and on track. That was not true, and Michael Ferguson
Speaker 2: says he didn't find out until they formed government again,
Speaker 2: despite the fact that he should have been kept in
Speaker 2: the loop. But very few people in Tasmania are willing
Speaker 2: to accept that he was just not told about the
Speaker 2: fact that the biggest infrastructure project in living memory doesn't
Speaker 2: have a berth. Now, Jackie Lamby, after all of this,
Speaker 2: and after all of this emerges only in the last
Speaker 2: few weeks comes out and says Michael Ferguson, the minister
Speaker 2: needs to be accountable, he should resign.
Speaker 4: Part of URBO uses holding people accountable and we just
Speaker 4: we did not believe that they were holding Mike Ferguson accountable.
Speaker 2: And Beswick and Pentland two of her MPs who have
Speaker 2: signed an agreement saying they will support the government in
Speaker 2: most circumstances unless there's corruption or malfeasans. Pentland and Beswick
Speaker 2: were just like well, you know what, shouldn't we just
Speaker 2: wait for the Public Affairs Public Accounts Committee to do
Speaker 2: its job and then we can decide what to do. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it really did put us in an awkward position with
Speaker 2: our supplying confidence deal.
Speaker 1: We're here to bring stability.
Speaker 4: We weren't here to hold the government hostage.
Speaker 2: You know, they all agree to stuff up, but they
Speaker 2: were more interested in maintaining the stability of the government,
Speaker 2: whereas Lamby was more interested despite the deal that she negotiated,
Speaker 2: being just putting the boot in. And that's where we
Speaker 2: have this big breakdown.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 1: So it seems like at the heart of this disagreement, Rick,
Speaker 1: is this deal that Jackie Lambe and the MPs made
Speaker 1: with the government. Jackie Lambe seems to not think that's
Speaker 1: important anymore. These MPs seem to think it's very important
Speaker 1: to stick to it. So is this really more about
Speaker 1: them not doing what Jackie Lamby wants and says at
Speaker 1: all times?
Speaker 5: I think this really gets to the numb the issue.
Speaker 2: And to kind of get my head around this, I
Speaker 2: called the Tasmanian based election analyst Kevin Bonham to kind
Speaker 2: of walk me through it. Interestingly enough, he's not just
Speaker 2: an election expert. He's also a recognized expert on landsnails
Speaker 2: in Tasmania. He'd just been out collecting specimen and looking
Speaker 2: for them, which I think is just perfect because, as
Speaker 2: he said, everyone in Tasmania has more than one job,
Speaker 2: you know. Essentially, he said, the agreement is almost universally
Speaker 2: considered to be woeful, but he was saying that really
Speaker 2: the problem is that the original agreement says what it is,
Speaker 2: and then Lamby and her later expectations they do not agree.
Speaker 2: He's saying that she's been all over the place and
Speaker 2: the position from the party was inconsistent I'm quoting in
Speaker 2: and it left the MPs in a really difficult position.
Speaker 2: If you want to have an eponymous party where you're
Speaker 2: you know, where what one person says goes, you could
Speaker 2: do that, he says, but you need to sell it
Speaker 2: as such, and they didn't. They sell themselves as sort
Speaker 2: of loose to central network of people who Lamby thinks
Speaker 2: so good. And of course if you look at the
Speaker 2: party pamphulet online, it says we let our members disagree
Speaker 2: with each other, that's okay, we don't want to rule
Speaker 2: people's thoughts. And then when they get elected Lamby wants
Speaker 2: them to do certain things, but that's not the basis
Speaker 2: that they ran under.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Rick, I think the big question here, though,
Speaker 1: is if you have lost the majority of your MPs,
Speaker 1: do you still have a party or is this the
Speaker 1: end of the Jackie Lamby network?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean she's had the network since twenty fifteen
Speaker 2: and was alone for most of that time. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess you do to Andrew Jenna, and he remains
Speaker 2: very loyal. I mean the problem with trying to model
Speaker 2: any political movement on a single person, and so there
Speaker 2: is only one of that single person. By nature, there
Speaker 2: is only one Jackie Lamby, and you're not going to
Speaker 2: have a party of ten of them. It's impossible. And
Speaker 2: so you're going to have agreements. And if you're not
Speaker 2: mature enough to actually sort out a framework or a
Speaker 2: party constitution that actually stipulates when and how this stuff
Speaker 2: should all work, then you're not ready. Few people often are,
Speaker 2: And apart from your dynastic successes like the Katta family,
Speaker 2: even Nick Xenophon, who was incredibly successful for a long time,
Speaker 2: eventually overreached a little bit. You know it, Just what
Speaker 2: do you want out of it?
Speaker 5: I guess it is the question now.
Speaker 2: Jackie Lamby's she started the party because she sort of
Speaker 2: needed to to get herself reelected and it worked. The
Speaker 2: fact that she's still there as a senator is an
Speaker 2: incredible achievement in her own right. But does she have
Speaker 2: what it takes to keep a party together? The signs
Speaker 2: are not good. They're not good.
Speaker 1: Rick, Thank you so much for your time and for
Speaker 1: your reporting.
Speaker 5: Thanks Ruby.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, the Philippines and China have
Speaker 1: accused each other of intentionally ramming Coastguard vessels in the
Speaker 1: South China See. The most recent collision over the weekend
Speaker 1: and was the fifth maritime incident between the two countries
Speaker 1: in the past month. China claims almost all of the
Speaker 1: South China Sea, despite the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruling
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen it has no legal basis to do so.
Speaker 1: Parts of the area are believed to be rich in
Speaker 1: oil and natural gas deposits, and Scotland may use almost
Speaker 1: two hundred million dollars of Victorian government money to host
Speaker 1: the Commonwealth Games in twenty twenty six Following speculation in
Speaker 1: the British media, Commonwealth Games Scotland said it would not
Speaker 1: need financial support from the government in order to host
Speaker 1: the Games, partly because of the compensation the Victorian government
Speaker 1: page for withdrawing from hosting. National's leader David little Proud
Speaker 1: said the news was an embarrassment that the Victorian government
Speaker 1: has imposed on Australia. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am.
Speaker 1: See you tomorrow.