Lambie slams cruel One Nation cartoon mocking her health
Senator Jacqui Lambie has taken aim at colleague Pauline Hanson’s “hatred” after having a debilitating health condition mocked.
Source: Jacqui Lambie
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has taken aim at colleague Pauline Hanson’s “hatred” after having a debilitating health condition mocked in a One Nation cartoon.
The latest cartoon in Hanson’s Please Explain series uses Lambie’s vaginal prolapse as a punchline in a longer critique of the Albanese government’s Digital Duty of Care legislation, which targets online safety.
“I can’t laugh because of my prolapsed vagina,” Lambie says in the cartoon, which was released at the weekend.
Lambie’s quote is followed by a crude sound ridiculing the health condition.
The Tasmanian senator, who is an army veteran, revealed her condition in an emotional speech to the upper house in August. She said her struggle was linked to a back injury while in the Australian Defence Force, and also spoke of the lack of access to care for other female veterans.
One Nation’s Please Explain cartoons are satirical videos that mock politicians and take aim at recent political events. Titled “The Albo-rithm”, the latest video was posted to One Nation’s social media at the weekend.
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On Monday, Lambie said people were welcome to watch the videos “if you want more hatred, more spitefulness in your life”.
“But what I do know is this: Decent leaders don’t stir up hatred, pushing us towards bloody anarchy, because that’s exactly what she’s doing,” she told ABC’s Radio National.
Lambie said she wouldn’t demand the video be removed. But Hanson’s team, especially the men, should ask for it to be taken down, she said.
“If you think it’s a laughable matter about women having problems with their reproductive system, then you be my guest and you stand by her,” Lambie said.
“But seriously, enough is enough.”
Other politicians, including independent MP Monique Ryan and Queensland Labor MP Kara Cook, also condemned the video.
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“Jacqui Lambie has shown courage and honesty in speaking of her experience of vaginal prolapse. She’s talked about an awkward subject to make it easier for other affected women,” Ryan – who is a medical doctor – wrote on social media on Sunday.
“Pauline Hanson thinks that’s worth making fun of. One Jacqui Lambie is worth 1000 Pauline Hansons.”
Cook, meanwhile, said ridiculing Lambie was wrong and that “politics can be tough without being cruel”.
“This isn’t clever satire. It’s personal humiliation dressed up as political commentary,” she wrote.
“We should be able to disagree fiercely, challenge ideas and hold each other accountable without resorting to personal humiliation.”
It is not the first time a One Nation cartoon has sparked outrage. Two months ago, the series took aim at Coalition frontbencher Andrew Hastie, describing him eight times as a traitor.
Hastie, a former SAS soldier who was deployed twice to Afghanistan, accused One Nation of politicising the court proceedings of accused war criminal Roberts-Smith and “trashing” his own service record.
He called on One Nation to delete the cartoon or own up to it in parliament.
“When you start calling me a traitor to my own country, then we have a big, big problem,” he said.
Hanson defended that cartoon vigorously. One Nation treasury spokesman Barnaby Joyce, however, offered a qualified apology. He said it was an “absurdity’ to call Hastie a “traitor”.
“Mr Hastie feels great umbrage about it. And for that, I apologise,” he said.
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