Things were going well in the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) before its namesake senator went behind the backs of Tasmanian MPs, the pair expelled from the party say.
Rebekah Pentland and Miriam Beswick broke their silence on Monday, revealing that recent tensions within the JLN led to an irreparable breakdown in their relationship with Lambie.
“Jacqui calls it how she sees it. We’ve just got different working styles and obviously it became unworkable for us. So we’ve been asked to leave,” Pentland said.
“We probably just needed a little bit more autonomy and a little bit more respect as politicians now to make some choices.”
Beswick said the pair did not feel respected and were put in an “awkward position” by Lambie’s call for the resignation of Minister Michael Ferguson.
“Obviously our relationship with Jacqui had been getting difficult and it was not overly great,” she said.
“[It’s been] a bit of a roller coaster in the last week or so. I guess we’re now free to … move forward and represent our electorates the way we would like to.”
The pair are now working with Premier Jeremy Rockliff to renegotiate a “simplified” confidence and supply agreement.
Andrew Jenner, the last remaining Tasmanian MP in the JLN, is also reportedly seeking a new deal.
“We’ll be looking for a lot more freedom to act as independents and vote the way we see fit,” Pentland said.
“We really want it to be a workable parliament and we will obviously look to give the government that advice when we’re not going to vote with them so that it can be workable.”
“We don’t see why we shouldn’t be entitled to a very similar agreement to other independents that are sitting in the parliament at the moment.”
Minister Eric Abetz has assured the public that the state government “remains stable”.
“There is no doubt that the two members that were expelled by Jacqui Lambie from the Jacqui Lambie network are willing to continue to provide the confidence in the government to which they signed up to earlier,” he said.
“I understand Andrew Jenner is in a similar situation. The Premier will have more to say about that later as new agreements arrive between those members.”
“Jacqui Lambie I don’t think has ever listened to me so I’m not going to bother to try to convince her to take a particular course of action … all I would ask her to do is please look after the best interests of Tasmanians.”
