Qantas, the national airline carrier for Australia, has banned a senator from Tasmania for six months after she went on a foul-mouthed rant at staff.
The incident took place on March 25 at Melbourne Airport. Qantas staff had apparently stopped Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie from entering the invitation-only Chairman’s Lounge at the airport. This prompted Lambie to start becoming abusive.
The exchange was caught on CCTV, including Lambie referring to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who is gay, as a “poof”.
Lambie also went on to use the term “pussy power” when arguing with the lounge check-in team.
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Qantas has now banned Lambie for six months from traveling on any of its planes.
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Today, on Australia’s Nine News, Lambie did not dispute this version of events and apologized, saying she’d been having a bad day and had been under a lot of stress at work in recent weeks.
“It was the end of a long week in Canberra. I’d backed into a car that morning, got a speeding ticket on the way to work, and my flight home was delayed.
“It was a bad day for me. But it was worse for the poor Qantas staff who had to stand and take my rant. I have apologized to the staff for my actions, and I’d like to do so again.
“I’ll take whatever punishment Qantas throws at me. I’ve done the crime and I’ll do the time, because that’s what I deserve.”
She was also asked about it on Australia’s Today show, at around the 6’20-minute mark below.
After Tim Cook at Apple, Qantas’s Alan Joyce, 54, is arguably the most high-profile, openly gay CEO of an internationally known brand. Born in Ireland, Joyce began his career at Aer Lingus in 1988, before joining Qantas in 2000 and rising to become its CEO.
A longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, he personally donated AUS$1million toward the campaign for marriage equality in Australia. He married his husband, Shayne Lloyd, in Sydney in November 2019.
Related: Openly gay CEO gets pie smashed in his face during speech
Neither Qantas nor Joyce have made any official statement about Lambie’s ban.
Lambie first served as a senator from 2014 to 2017, and was re-elected in 2019 leading her own Jacqui Lambie Network party.
It’s not the first time she has caused controversy. Appearing on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here in 2019, she was caught on camera criticizing the Tasmanian Lower House passing trans-inclusive laws: “Now we’re into moving Australia Day, we’re into transgender and making sure we can change their fucking birth certificates. Stupid Tasmania, they did that just before Christmas time.”
In 2014, she apologized after a radio interview in which she described her ideal man as “well off” and “well hung.”
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Ronbo
Everyone who is caught can mouth the word, “sorry”. The apology is forced.
cuteguy
Should be a life time ban
Celtic
Agreed! I thought this was in the U.S. at first, given our radicalized unstable legislators!!!
Cam
“”“It was the end of a long week in Canberra. I’d backed into a car that morning, got a speeding ticket on the way to work, and my flight home was delayed.””
So she wrecked somebody else’s car, then broke the law, and yet plays the victim that SHE was having a bad day. No, she had a long day of making other people have a bad day.
Cloud
You are so right. She probably uses the victim card all the time.
Wayne_in_NYC
Oh, none of those others mattered because she’s the only one who matters because being a senator puts her above the law and exempt from decency! In the USA, she’d make a fine Republican!
Gadfeal
The issue is not merely bad behavior, but the expectation of privilege. She should be banned for life from the Chairman’s Lounge, and Quantas should also ban her for a year from any Quantas lounge.
HenryHawke
I’ve got an even better idea. Not only ban her from any Quantas lounge, she should be banned from first or business class seating. Let her sit in coach with the people she’s supposed to be serving.
JJinAus
As an Australian, I beg you, BEG you! It’s Qantas. It’s an acronym, like TuWA, or PuANAM.
tomch52
I thought the only tasmainian devil was a cartoon character! But nope! We now have a actual living cartoon character!
scotty
boo hoo. walk then c unt.
Heywood Jablowme
Tasmania is an island so if Qantas is the only airline to it (?) she has to take a ferry? Or fairy? She’ll have to talk to the manager of the ferry, or the chief fairy.
JJinAus
No, we have other airlines.