Jacqui Lambie has been banned from flying Qantas after referring to CEO Alan Joyce with a homophobic slur during an explosive argument with airline staff.
While previous reports suggested the fiery Tasmanian senator had been banned from accessing their invitation-only airport lounges, the full extent of her fall out with Australia’s marquee airline has now been revealed.
Lambie was at the service desk of Qantas’ exclusive Chairman’s Lounge in Melbourne Airport on March 25 when staff refused her entry.
While arguing to be let into the area popular with travelling politicians and top business people, she launched into an expletive-filled rant that descended into homophobic slurs against the airline’s openly-gay CEO.
Jacqui Lambie apologised for her behaviour in an interview on the Today show on Thursday morning
CCVTV captioned her mentioning ‘pussy power’ and telling employees ‘your CEO is a p##f,’ – a reference to Joyce.
The senator and Qantas bosses discussed the outburst, which resulted in a six-month ban from flying with the airline, which began in April.
Ms Lambie apologised for the incident when she appeared on the Today show on Thursday and said it was triggered by workplace stress.
‘It had been a long few weeks up in Parliament. It’s just been a really, really long year. Basically I just blew my stack and unfortunately there was a couple of Qantas staff members that wore that,’ Ms Lambie said.
‘They should never have wore that and it was really unfair of me to do that to them. So once again, I’m extremely apologetic for my behaviour for that few minutes.’
The exclusive Chairman’s Lounge in Melbourne Airport where Ms Lambie was refused entry on March 25 sparking a fiery outburst
Ms Lambie has been banned from all Qantas flights and services for six months after calling CEO Alan Joyce a ‘poof’
The senator said she ‘deserved every bit of the ban’ and had written the airline staff a letter apologising for her behaviour.
Mr Joyce married his long-time partner Shayne Lloyd in a ritzy ceremony in Sydney’s Circular Quay in November 2019.
Ms Lambie, a former army corporal, was first elected as a senator from 2014 to 2017, before being re-elected in 2019, championing issues such as veteran and foreign affairs, youth unemployment, and the criticism of Islam.
It is not the first time the outspoken politician’s tongue has landed her in trouble.
In 2014, she apologised after describing her ideal man in a radio interview as ‘well off’ and ‘well hung’.
Ms Lambie was first elected as a senator from 2014 to 2017, before being re-elected in 2019
