CW: This article discusses drug abuse and suicide.
When Jacqui Lambie was young, her mother referred to her as 'the rebel from hell'.
The description has no doubt passed through the minds of politicians of all stripes since the outspoken palawa woman ascended to the federal senate almost ten years ago.
In that time, she has become a force in national politics, a prick in the side of the establishment, and inspired admiration and derision in almost equal parts.
Delivered in soft tones and with the new senator dressed in the colours of her then-party (Clive Palmer's United Australia), Lambie's maiden speech to parliament belied the passionate independence that she would come to show in that chamber.
That was on full display late last year, when the senator unloaded on anti-vaccine sentiment around the country, deriding the notion that jab mandates were discriminatory in a passionate spray that went viral.
Senator Lambie Source: Supplied
It is perhaps no surprise that a descendant of one of Tasmania’s greatest warriors and leaders, Mannalargenna, has always fought for what she believes in.
In a candid interview with Living Black's Karla Grant, the Tasmanian senator spoke openly about the trials and tribulations of life, her journey into politics, and where it all began.
Born and raised
Raised in public housing in Devonport, Lambie's early years were tough.
Her parents separated when she was thirteen years old, and she was considered a wild child. She ran into trouble with the law more than once, but says she was "very lucky".
"Back then the police dealt with you usually before you got to the court, although I did end up in the court a couple of times.
Lambie as a baby Source: Supplied
"But I think that was all part of growing up.”
She was the victim of a brutal random attack when walking home one evening, only a kilometre from where she lived with her mum.
The attack left her with a fractured cheekbone, but her laissez-faire response to the incident illuminates a resilience she was to display repeatedly through her life.
“I... couldn't open [my eyes] for five days because he'd hit me that hard.
A young Lambie at her childhood home Source: Supplied
"But I think, in a way, if that's the worst thing that happened to me when I was a teenager... I was able to compose myself and get up and run, I think eventually that I moved on from that.”
Escape, education, and enlisting
A few years later she took a gap year, moving to the Northern Territory after a close friend invited her to make a break from her life in Tasmania.
“I learnt more in one year in Katherine than I had in the previous 16 years in Tasmania," she said.
“It was a real eye-opener. That was the first time [I] learned what Indigenous communities were actually about. The proper, you know, those real hardcore communities out there.”
After a year living in Katherine, she returned home to Tasmania, had her first child, and eventually joined the army.
"I happened to be looking for another part-time job while I was doing school and there was an army bus outside... and I signed up on the dotted line and joined the defence force instead.
"I was really lucky to get 10 years in there.”
Lambie whilst serving in the army Source: Supplied
A dark chapter
After ten years serving, Lambie was medically discharged due to a serious back injury which resulted in nerve damage.
“They didn't treat it properly... and I like many others [for two years] was just shoving pills down my throat.
"That caused the next 10 years of my life to be completely out of control, towards alcohol abuse, I couldn't work... I couldn't leave the house to go to the supermarket...
"It was a really horrific 10 years for me.”
She was a mother of two at the time, a period she describes as the darkest of her life, seriously contemplating suicide.
Lambie (middle) whilst serving in the army Source: Supplied
“I was that empty human shell, because you've got no purpose in life.
"I'd been considering this off and on for a few years... I just had a crap load of alcohol one night and decided.
"I wrote the kids' letters up during that week... If you have no purpose, there's no point in being here.
"But for me, that was life-changing."
Getting back on track
Eventually, with the help of various medical treatments and assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Lambie says she was able to break the cycle and get her life back on track.
“I'm not 100 per cent sure how or why I came out of that and I was able to get where I am today,” she said.
“And even now, every now and then, I'll slip down a little bit mentally and that's because of what I went through.
"I go and have one or two sessions, and that pulls me back up again, and then I'll be good for another year or two.”
Lambie with her young child Source: Supplied
Politics
Lambie was elected to Tasmania's sixth senate seat in 2013, representing the Palmer United Party.
She says she was driven by the clear intention of helping people.
“So I worked that out very early on, the only way I was gonna make change and make a difference, I had to be in that goddamn senate, and I had to be part of that balance of power.”
After a year with mercurial billionaire Clive Palmer's party, she resigned to become an independent, eventually forming the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN).
Since becoming an independent, Lambie has been outspoken on many issues, inviting praise and controversy.
By 2014, she had been labelled as 'the new Pauline Hanson', complete with anti-Muslim and anti-Chinese rhetoric, views she says she now regrets.
“Those Muslim statements were very wrong. They were bringing division. They were not bringing unity.
"And that is not who Jacqui Lambie is, so if I've got something to say, I'll say it but I expect to sit in the centre and do my job."
She has won admiration for other issues, such as advocating for the introduction of dedicated seats for Indigenous representatives in parliament, the devastating impacts of ice on youth, and raising the age of criminal responsibility.
She also remains a staunch supporter of veterans, strongly advocating for the now-active Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans' Suicide.
Jacqui Lambie with Karla Grant filming Living Black Source: Supplied
Election 2022
In the short term, she thinks the time is just about up for the current Morrison government, being particularly scathing of the handling of the pandemic.
"I think the government's gonna really struggle to win that next election," she said.
"The boosters are not organized. Our children have not had one vaccine, let alone two. There was no rapid antigen tests running around.
"That goes to show me you cannot govern. Because you cannot organize, and you're putting a lot of people at risk..."
Although the senator is not up for re-election this year, it is a time of significance for her, with some polls pointing to the possibility of a hung parliament.
It's a scenario that could see Lambie hold a lot of power. She says there are many issues she will be keeping a close eye on.
"We're gonna have a lot of problems with homelessness out there, because people just can't afford housing, and you can see it happening here in Tasmania.
"The answers are bloody out there... it's just a matter of someone pushing them.
"But quite frankly, that's what I'd like to be able to do.
"I don't care what colour skin you've got, how do we break this cycle so I haven't got you... your daughter, and your granddaughter... living in public housing for the next 100 years?
"I want the answers, and I wanna know how we break [the cycle].
"That's what I want.”
The full conversation can be viewed on NITV’s Living Black, Monday 18th April, 2022 at 8:30pm or on SBS OnDemand.
