Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is the best time of the year: it's Christmas time, and I love it! It brings back many, many memories. I know that we won't get much more opportunity up here this week, so I just want to wish all those Tasmanians out there a really happy festive season. Please stay safe and I hope that you have a really great new year. I know that it has been a tough few years through COVID and I know that you're all trying to find your way to get back on your feet this year. I imagine that you're all really looking forward to this Christmas.

I just want to tell a short story for all the females out there. If you're planning on doing a barbecue lunch or using your barbecue on Christmas Day, or if you're buying one for your husband or partner, and you think that you can put all the nuts and screws together, then I suggest you might want to get that ready about a week earlier. I can assure you—take it from somebody who knows from experience—that if you have a couple of drinks and you're still setting it up at 1 o'clock and don't yet have it together then it's probably going to end up on a table with the gas bottle hanging in the air! It's not a good idea!

I also have a little tip for you men about the trampolines out there—a very difficult one! It's the springs. I watched my partner, the night before, say, 'No worries, darling, I'll get it done,' and then we were out there at 1 o'clock in the freaking morning, trying to put this bloody trampoline together! So when you buy things with nuts and bolts, please don't leave them until Christmas Eve because it doesn't always turn out as well as what you would hope.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Did you mix up the trampoline with the barbecue?

Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, don't worry about the trampoline! You can have a bit of fun with your hubby the night before—put some bubbles and water on it, be my guest! No problem there.

But, seriously, I really do wish all the Tasmanians down there a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I certainly wouldn't feel right, and neither would Tasmanians, if I didn't wish the rest of you mainlanders a happy new year and a merry Christmas too. I'll just remind you that I know we're at the bottom, but we're at the bottom for a reason. It's because we have to do all the heavy lifting!

Merry Christmas to you all out there in Australia. Have a good one, have a safe one and have a fabulous new year. I can tell you that after coming out of COVID over a couple years and getting on our feet, surely next year just has to get bigger and better. Merry Christmas.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

And Merry Christmas to you, Senator Lambie.

Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're double-dipping—that's a very Tasmanian tradition as well! I'm brand new and I'm hoping that [inaudible] Tasmania and the Senate [inaudible]. Thank you so much for your kindness and for electing me: I truly appreciate it. It has been a great year—six months only, with 5½ years to go. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family, and I have had experience with the trampoline and the barbecue, so I reiterate what Senator Lambie said: plan, plan, plan! Have a drink, have a feed and spend time with your loved ones. That's the best bit for me—spending time: no presents, just spend time with me.

And thank you, senators, for spending time with me. I know you're trapped sometimes! But I truly appreciate it. The Senate has been an experience that I would never, ever give up, and I will take for life the advice that you guys have given me: enjoy it, embrace it, do the best that you can with what you can. Thank you. I appreciate you.

I hope that Tasmanians will give me a chance in the new year to do more for them. Speak to me, listen to me, tell me when I'm wrong, because I know you will do that. That's what Tasmanians do, Jacqui tells me all the time. Trust me, I wish I could shut her up, but, sadly, that's not happening! Have a Merry Christmas, a beautiful New Year, and I'll see you all back here next year for another year of fun and games. Merry Christmas and thank you.