Jacqui Lambie has condemned a One Nation cartoon mocking her health struggle with vaginal prolapse, as Labor and crossbenchers expressed their support for the Tasmanian senator.
The latest cartoon, part of Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain series, took aim at the Albanese government’s Digital Duty of Care legislation, which targets online safety.
It depicts Lambie, an army veteran, as saying “I can’t laugh because of my prolapsed vagina” before adding a crude sound effect ridiculing the health condition.
In an emotional address in the upper house in August, the independent senator spoke of her own struggles with the women’s health issue and the lack of access to care faced by other female veterans.
Responding to the cartoon on Monday, Lambie said voters doing it tough in a cost-of-living crisis didn’t need any more “nastiness”.
“I would have just thought that if those people, and especially those men in there, if they had any front whatsoever, what they do is ask her to remove that effective immediately,” she told ABC’s RN.
“If you think it’s a laughable matter about women having problems with their reproductive system then you be my guest, and you stand by her. But seriously, enough is enough.”
Industry Minister Tim Ayres said he was “shocked at how low these One Nation people will go”.
“It’s kind of imported overseas politics, this kind of nasty style of politics, kicking at people, denigrating them, trying to make them feel small,” he told Nine’s Today Show.
“There’s tens of thousands of Australian women who battle with health conditions like this one or others, and they don’t deserve to be smashed up by some cheap, nasty bit of political propaganda run out of Pauline Hanson’s office.”
Speaking about Hanson, Lambie said “decent leaders don’t stir up hatred, pushing us towards bloody anarchy”.
The independent Victorian MP Monique Ryan condemned the cartoon on Sunday, saying Lambie had shown “courage and honesty in speaking of her experience of vaginal prolapse”.
“Pelvic organ prolapse – bladder or vaginal – affects about 1 in 12 Australian women. It’s often linked to physical strain, heavy lifting or past childbirth. It’s uncomfortable and debilitating.
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In sharing her experience of the condition in parliament, Ryan said Lambie “talked about an awkward subject to make it easier for other affected women. Pauline Hanson thinks that’s worth making fun of.”
“One Jacqui Lambie is worth 1,000 Pauline Hansons,” Ryan said.
The cartoon also doubles down on claiming Liberal MP and former special forces soldier Andrew Hastie is a “traitor”, which portrays him as believing his veteran status should exempt him from criticism.
“Traitor, a traitor? But I’m a veteran,” his character in the cartoon says.
Hastie, who also served in Afghanistan with the elite SAS regiment, has been attacked by One Nation for testifying during the defamation trial of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.
The Victoria Cross recipient has been charged over five alleged murders involving unarmed detainees during his deployment in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Roberts-Smith denies the allegations.
