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Jacqui Lambie Network
Apr. 19th, 2025 03:17 pmJacqui Lambie Network
Website: https://www.lambienetwork.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorLambie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senatorjacquilambie/
Jacqui Lambie emerged as a political force after being originally elected by PUP back in 2013. A populist social conservative who has a strong focus on services for military veterans and on Islamophobia, she’s a politician who I frequently disagree with but fully respect her presence in politics. Lambie genuinely represents a cohort of Australians who are otherwise overlooked by the major parties. Lambie’s learning curve as a politician was steep, but she’s at the point where she’s an achievable vote to buy to pass things in the Senate
Her party has mostly existed as a re-election vehicle for herself. Of the 5 politicians who’ve been elected under the party name: Tammy Tyrrell, in the Senate, has quit over conflict with Lambie; and two of the three Tasmanian state MPs were kicked out of the party by Lambie in 2024 after conflict over feeling dictated to by Lambie
So just like One Nation, JLN is a party where scrutinising the candidates put forward is important, as the weight of evidence is that you’ll be dealing with them as independents by the end of their term rather than actual party members.
Party Analysis
JLN’s lead policies are on power prices; they want a national gas reservation, and they also want solar power and batteries installed on all social housing. Clearly they’re not fussed at wading into the renewables v fossil fuels debate: they just want cheaper power. I do note that Anne Twomey has weighed in on the constitutionality of some of these gas reserve policies (that to be constitutional it would have to apply across the country, not just to the East Coast market), but honestly the JLN policy doesn’t have enough details to determine if it meets that.
JLN want better corporate anti-competition laws, to “reduce cost of living pressures”. This is a broader policy than some other parties who are calling for this just to apply to Woolies and Coles. They want to raise funds by cracking down on multinational tax avoidance, and for ‘fair’ resource royalties on the sale of minerals and fossil fuels to funnel more money back into the Australian economy from those sales. There’s also a ‘transparent and accountable government’ policy, though it’s not clear on whether in the Rex Patrick sense (who is running in SA) of increased FOI transparency and better whistleblower protections, or in a more straightforward suspicion that politicians are all just hiding things from the electorate.
JLN are campaigning for more value-add processing done in Australia. They’re calling for more manufacturing done prior to export: so we sell steel rather than iron ore, and batteries rather than raw lithium. Interestingly they’ve also applied this to more than just mining: there’s a call to “export products, not research”, so they want to keep more production here.
There is however the usual migrant suspicion you expect to see from JLN. It’s toned down a lot over the years, but JLN’s housing policy is to ‘freeze foreign investment in residential properties’. I’m not convinced that will achieve anything substantial in terms of increasing the number of properties in the housing market, especially compared to increasing density and building more housing.
And JLN have welfare support policies around young people and veterans. In terms of youth, JLN are focused on those without much opportunity: they want to “grow their self-worth, teach lost values and prevent a cycle of crime” (so no teen gangs!). For veterans, JLN are focused on mental health and suicide in the community, including implementing the recommendations from the Royal Commission, and in ensuring pensions are properly paid.
In the spirit of my comments above, I did do a bit of digging on Glenn Kolomeitz, the lead candidate for NSW. He’s an ex-Labor candidate with a star studded career as a military lawyer. He’s obviously been recruited for his strong focus on veteran welfare and mental health, but he’s also worked in Ukraine documenting war crimes, wrote his doctoral thesis on command responsibility for war crimes with an emphasis on Australia’s command and control structures in Afghanistan, and has been very strident over Australia’s ethical obligations to Afghan interpreters. He’s definitely conservative and he spends a fair bit of time getting interviewed on Sky News, but I think he’d be a genuine asset in any parliament, rather than a clown candidate like some others I could mention (Babet, for instance).
Is this party trying to kill me?
No. The modern Jacqui Lambie Network is pretty focused on mental health treatment and prevention, actually; though particularly in terms of military veterans and police veterans rather than everyday punters.
Is this party trying to harm me?
Look, I would still never expect to see JLN promoting multiculturalism or coming out strongly for a bunch of progressive social issues, but they’re certainly not actively campaigning against them anymore.
Conclusion:
Jacqui Lambie Network as a party is still primarily a re-election vehicle for Jacqui Lambie herself, but I have to say her candidate selection process this election looks a lot more stable than seen in many similar parties. They're a centre right party with a focus primarily on the community demographic that Lambie herself comes from. I think they contribute in a valuable way to having a diverse set of views in parliament that represent the community, and I’d rather see them win seats than quite a few other minor parties of the right.
Website: https://www.lambienetwork.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorLambie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/senatorjacquilambie/
Jacqui Lambie emerged as a political force after being originally elected by PUP back in 2013. A populist social conservative who has a strong focus on services for military veterans and on Islamophobia, she’s a politician who I frequently disagree with but fully respect her presence in politics. Lambie genuinely represents a cohort of Australians who are otherwise overlooked by the major parties. Lambie’s learning curve as a politician was steep, but she’s at the point where she’s an achievable vote to buy to pass things in the Senate
Her party has mostly existed as a re-election vehicle for herself. Of the 5 politicians who’ve been elected under the party name: Tammy Tyrrell, in the Senate, has quit over conflict with Lambie; and two of the three Tasmanian state MPs were kicked out of the party by Lambie in 2024 after conflict over feeling dictated to by Lambie
So just like One Nation, JLN is a party where scrutinising the candidates put forward is important, as the weight of evidence is that you’ll be dealing with them as independents by the end of their term rather than actual party members.
Party Analysis
JLN’s lead policies are on power prices; they want a national gas reservation, and they also want solar power and batteries installed on all social housing. Clearly they’re not fussed at wading into the renewables v fossil fuels debate: they just want cheaper power. I do note that Anne Twomey has weighed in on the constitutionality of some of these gas reserve policies (that to be constitutional it would have to apply across the country, not just to the East Coast market), but honestly the JLN policy doesn’t have enough details to determine if it meets that.
JLN want better corporate anti-competition laws, to “reduce cost of living pressures”. This is a broader policy than some other parties who are calling for this just to apply to Woolies and Coles. They want to raise funds by cracking down on multinational tax avoidance, and for ‘fair’ resource royalties on the sale of minerals and fossil fuels to funnel more money back into the Australian economy from those sales. There’s also a ‘transparent and accountable government’ policy, though it’s not clear on whether in the Rex Patrick sense (who is running in SA) of increased FOI transparency and better whistleblower protections, or in a more straightforward suspicion that politicians are all just hiding things from the electorate.
JLN are campaigning for more value-add processing done in Australia. They’re calling for more manufacturing done prior to export: so we sell steel rather than iron ore, and batteries rather than raw lithium. Interestingly they’ve also applied this to more than just mining: there’s a call to “export products, not research”, so they want to keep more production here.
There is however the usual migrant suspicion you expect to see from JLN. It’s toned down a lot over the years, but JLN’s housing policy is to ‘freeze foreign investment in residential properties’. I’m not convinced that will achieve anything substantial in terms of increasing the number of properties in the housing market, especially compared to increasing density and building more housing.
And JLN have welfare support policies around young people and veterans. In terms of youth, JLN are focused on those without much opportunity: they want to “grow their self-worth, teach lost values and prevent a cycle of crime” (so no teen gangs!). For veterans, JLN are focused on mental health and suicide in the community, including implementing the recommendations from the Royal Commission, and in ensuring pensions are properly paid.
In the spirit of my comments above, I did do a bit of digging on Glenn Kolomeitz, the lead candidate for NSW. He’s an ex-Labor candidate with a star studded career as a military lawyer. He’s obviously been recruited for his strong focus on veteran welfare and mental health, but he’s also worked in Ukraine documenting war crimes, wrote his doctoral thesis on command responsibility for war crimes with an emphasis on Australia’s command and control structures in Afghanistan, and has been very strident over Australia’s ethical obligations to Afghan interpreters. He’s definitely conservative and he spends a fair bit of time getting interviewed on Sky News, but I think he’d be a genuine asset in any parliament, rather than a clown candidate like some others I could mention (Babet, for instance).
Is this party trying to kill me?
No. The modern Jacqui Lambie Network is pretty focused on mental health treatment and prevention, actually; though particularly in terms of military veterans and police veterans rather than everyday punters.
Is this party trying to harm me?
Look, I would still never expect to see JLN promoting multiculturalism or coming out strongly for a bunch of progressive social issues, but they’re certainly not actively campaigning against them anymore.
Conclusion:
Jacqui Lambie Network as a party is still primarily a re-election vehicle for Jacqui Lambie herself, but I have to say her candidate selection process this election looks a lot more stable than seen in many similar parties. They're a centre right party with a focus primarily on the community demographic that Lambie herself comes from. I think they contribute in a valuable way to having a diverse set of views in parliament that represent the community, and I’d rather see them win seats than quite a few other minor parties of the right.
