New Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie has given Prime Minister Tony Abbott a serve this morning on ‘Today’ questioning the “parading” of his family for media purposes.
“I understand there is times when our families will be caught in pictures and on TV monitors, but there’s a fine line between that and parading them for your own self purposes and … to forge your own career,” she told ‘Today. “Parading them the way he did was way over the line.”
When asked by interviewer Lisa Wilkinson whether her comments could cause tension between PUP and the Liberal Party, the Senator-elect was blunt. “You’ve got one of two choices. You can run and hide or you can say to yourself, ‘Here’s a bucket of cement, toughen up’.”
The former corporal in the Australian Army also indicated her desire to one day occupy the chair Tony Abbott now resides in. “You don’t go into politics if you don’t want to go all the way. If you don’t have those aspirations, maybe you shouldn’t be here in the first place,” she said.
While Tony was in Ms Lambie’s crosshair, she also shared her thoughts on another leader who faced plenty of domestic criticism, former British PM Margaret Thatcher. “I think she was tough, she stood her ground, she had common sense, she had brains,” Ms Lambie said. “She ran with what she decided, she never backed down and she was a brilliant leader.”
