LEAVING the Palmer United Party is not an urgent priority for Jacqui Lambie, but the rogue senator is unlikely to be re-endorsed by the group, an election analyst says.
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Ms Lambie is expected to make a decision on her political future early this week following protracted disagreements with the party that helped propel her to power.
The Ulverstone woman said last week that she would base her decision on what was best for Tasmania.
Analyst Dr Kevin Bonham said it would probably make little difference to Ms Lambie’s political career if she stayed in the party or decided to leave, but he expected that she would eventually be forced out if she did not quit.
She was demoted from her roles within the party last week.
‘‘I don’t think anything will be safe for her,’’ Dr Bonham said.
‘‘It would be awkward for the party having to continually have this situation where they have to say ‘She’s one of us but she’s not one of us’, but the Palmer United Party is a pretty whacky party so you never really know what it’s going to do.’’
Dr Bonham said it would be interesting to see if an independent Ms Lambie positioned herself as a Brian Harradine-style Tasmanian battler or continued to pursue defence and immigration issues.
He said there was plenty for the Palmer United Party to learn from the situation – particularly in screening candidates.
‘‘There’s been a lot of issues with the Palmer Party and candidates ... they keep getting into these candidate scrapes,’’ he said.
‘‘They don’t seem to do background checking, and if they do they don’t appear to take things as seriously as they perhaps should.’’
A spokesman for Ms Lambie said yesterday that the senator had spent the weekend in a log cabin with her phone switched off pondering her future.
‘‘She’s got a new hairstyle and look, for a new approach to politics – Tasmania first,’’ the spokesman said.
