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FROM THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Jacqui Lambie has quit the Palmer United Party.
Senator Lambie made the widely expected announcement to the Senate on Monday morning. A bitter dispute with Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer has seen the pair publicly trade blows for the past week.
Senator Lambie told the Senate she had no time for "mud-slinging" and apologised to voters in her home state of Tasmania for the uncertainty the divisions had caused.
She said her resignation, effective immediately, left her free to negotiate with the government over the scaling back of the renewable energy target and the abolition of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, moves which the former PUP bloc of four had sought to block.
Senator Lambie said she would "never vote" for the government's proposed changes to higher education fees or for a GP co-payment.
- Lisa Cox
EARLIER: Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie has resigned from the Palmer United Party.
Senator Lambie will now sit as an independent.
In her resignation speech, Senator Lambie said she ''must be free to vote in this senate in the best interest of Tasmanians".
In closing, Senator Lambie said: ''I don't have the time or the energy to be drawn into a political mudslinging contest'', regarding her relationship with party leader Clive Palmer.
I will not be drawn into the game of responding to false and hurtful personal attacks, she said.
''God bless Australia, God bless my Tasmania and our beautiful Southern Cross," she said in closing.
MORE TO COME