In Parliament because "God performed a miracle and put me in this place", as she told the Senate earlier this month, she refuses to kowtow even to Palmer, who enlisted her after she ran out of money to fund an independent campaign. "I don't back down to Clive Palmer," she told the ABC's Australian Story. "Even a billionaire needs to be told, every now and again."
Lambie, always clad in her trademark yellow, is not just an attention-seeker. She burns with real passion about the problems of her home state, especially unemployment; about the rough treatment, as she sees it, of military veterans; and about the interests of "the elderly, sick, needy and disabled ... the battlers, small-business owners and workers".
The ultimate political outsider, she cares because she comes from that background. The daughter of a truck driver and factory worker who split up when she was 13, she grew up in public housing in Tasmania's depressed northwest. After injuring her spine during army training, she had to fight the Department of Veteran Affairs for years to get compensation.
Her language is raw and to the point. The Prime Minister is a "political psychopath" and "bare-faced liar". Unemployed young people, the targets of welfare cuts, already feel "like a bucket of s**t". The high transport costs paid by Tasmanians are an "outrageous, stinking, filthy injustice".
Jacqueline Maley, a Fairfax Media columnist, told Australian Story: "Jacqui Lambie is completely unvarnished by the political machine. You might say that she's rough as guts, but she resembles real people more than anybody else in Parliament."
Malcolm Farr, political editor of the News Corp website, concurs. "It's part of the brilliance and resilience of our political system that this woman ... can make it to the Australian Parliament," he says.
During her maiden speech, Lambie stunned many listeners by declaring that she has Aboriginal ancestry, as a descendant of the revered Tasmanian chief Mannalargenna. The claim was dismissed as "not factual" by Clyde Mansell, chairman of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council. Lambie promptly warned Mansell to "watch your step with me" and offered to have a DNA test.
Regardless of that issue, she is contributing to the national conversation about indigenous disadvantage and recognition. No less a person than Noel Pearson, one of Australia's most widely respected indigenous leaders, has described her proposal for dedicated seats in federal parliament as "one model" meriting proper debate. Even Abbott did not rule out "serious discussions" about it.
Lambie has talked candidly about the depression, alcoholism and painkiller addiction which she battled after leaving the Australian Defence Force, where she had been a driver and military police officer.
Palmer calls her "a straight shooter". Sometimes she would be well advised to keep her powder dry. Like when she declared that Australians who support sharia law "should probably pack up their bags and get out of here". Or when she defended Palmer after he criticised the Chinese as "mongrels" who "shoot their own people". Just as Palmer was damping down that row, Lambie sprang in to warn that "we can't ignore the threat of Communist Chinese invasion". That earned her the nickname "Lambo" in the Courier-Mail.
Andrew Wilkie, the Independent Tasmanian MP, believes she has already outgrown the PUP and could be re-elected in her own right. He told Australian Story: "If she can survive [the pressure] ... and develop more confidence and a more sophisticated understanding of public policy, I think she could have quite a long and successful future in the Parliament."
