Jacqui Lambie chooses not to rule out leaving Palmer United party

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/jacqui-lambie-not-rule-out-leaving-palmer-united

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Palmer United party senator Jacqui Lambie has refused to rule out leaving the party, saying her “intention” is to work with PUP.

Lambie and her party leader, Clive Palmer, have disagreed over Lambie’s campaign to ban the burqa and her continued comments about sharia law being “based on terrorism” and saying extremist Muslims who follow it should get out of Australia.

Palmer reportedly called Lambie “not very bright” on Tuesday morning in conversation at the parliamentary canteen and when Fairfax Media made inquiries about the alleged remark Lambie’s media adviser, Rob Messenger, emailed his response to the entire press gallery.

Messenger alleged Palmer had actually called another PUP senator, Dio Wang, “not very bright”.

Asked by Guardian Australia if Lambie could rule out leaving the party, Lambie responded through her adviser: “My intention is to work with the Palmer United party.”

Messenger retracted the remark about Wang, saying the response “was a joke”.

“There are armed guards at a high state of readiness outside parliament – for the first time in Australian modern history. Ordinary Australians are now fearful of attacks from sharia extremists. Politicians and staff now know a little of how the troops overseas must be feeling – so we decided to lighten up people’s day with a little fun,” she said of the decision to email the response to a journalist’s questions to the entire press gallery.

Palmer denied he called Lambie “not very bright” at a press conference, responding with a simple “no” then telling the reporter “I don’t think you’re very bright” when he was asked if he had made the comment about Wang.

“I’ve never been upset about a challenge [from Lambie] and she’s never said she would leave at the party, and she won’t,” he said when responding to her comments about sharia law.

“She said she will never leave the party. She will be voting today in the Senate with all of our senators. I know you’d love to have a story like that so you get a headline. We can’t create the news, we should just report it.”

When asked what the consequences would be for a PUP senator who crossed the floor in the Senate, Palmer said: “I don’t know; you’ve had enough questions.”

Palmer allegedly made the remarks about Lambie not being very bright at the parliamentary canteen, colloquially known as “the trough”. In the original response to Fairfax Media, Messenger wrote on Lambie’s behalf:

“Clive couldn’t have said that about me because I was standing at the ‘trough’ as well – and he said the same thing to me about Dio,” the email said.

He added: “Ps Jacqui wants to know – were your sources also standing at the ‘trough’ as well or were they together in a cubical [sic]?”

Palmer said he had a “different view” than Lambie when asked about her sharia law comments on Tuesday and compared sharia law to canon law.

“We’ve got to remember when we compare other religions we’ve got to be fair and balanced,” he said.

“I’m a Roman Catholic. We believe very strongly in canon law for our religious upbringing and there are parts of the canon law that we have to remember that were responsible for the burning of people at the stake … Sharia law has areas similar to that but that doesn’t apply in this country because we’re Australians and we work under Australian law.”

Lambie continued her campaign against burqas and sharia law on Monday with a speech to the Senate.

“It’s about time we faced the fact that these maniacs and depraved humans will not stop committing their cold-blooded butchery and rapes until every woman in Australia wears a burqa and is subservient to men,” Lambie said on Monday in her latest comments on sharia law.

Guardian Australia asked Palmer on Monday if he was planning to reprimand the senator to which he replied, “No comment.”