Jacqui Lambie has criticised a One Nation cartoon mocking the Tasmanian senator’s health struggle with vaginal prolapse. 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”. But seriously, enough is enough.” Speaking about Hanson, Lambie said “decent leaders don’t stir up hatred, pushing us towards bloody anarchy”.
The independent senator Monique Ryan condemned the cartoon on Sunday, saying Lambie had shown “courage and honesty in speaking of her experience of vaginal prolapse”. It’s often linked to physical strain, heavy lifting or past childbirth. It’s uncomfortable and debilitating.
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.
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.
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