Malcolm Turnbull should keep an eye on Eric Abetz following racial slur: Jacqui Lambie

Senator Jacqui Lambie said on Friday that if she were the prime minister, she would have been more careful about the recently demoted senator Eric Abetz before he embarrassed himself and his party any further. She has also urged Abetz to quit from his post with "whatever dignity he's got left."

"Eric's gone from being top of the game to the back, back, backbench," Senator Lambie told Fairfax Media on Friday. "If I were Malcolm Turnbull I'd be keeping a very close eye on him because he's becoming erratic."

The reactions came after Abetz used a racist term to describe African-American Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on radio 2UE on Thursday afternoon. Abetz used the term “negro” while referring to Justice Thomas in an instance while he was defending his stand against legalising same-sex marriage.

When his interviewer Justin Smith said that refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple can be considered to be in the same line with racial discrimination, Abetz quickly drew on Justice Thomas’ propositions to support his stance. The judge was one of the American Supreme court members who opposed the 4-5 ruling in favour of the same-sex marriage.

"Those sort of analogies are quite offensive and that sort of analogy was completely debunked by Justice Clarence Thomas, the negro American on the Supreme Court of the United States dealing with this issue, who dissented on the issue of marriage as well," Senator Abetz said.

Lambie also said that Abetz will soon be facing oppositions from the Liberal Party members in Tasmania, who will ask him to step aside. Interviewer Smith noted at the use of the term but Abetz brushed it aside and went on with what he was saying.

"I am sure I am not alone in seeing the irony of Jacqui Lambie lecturing others in dignity and erratic behaviour," senator Cory Bernardi, who is a close ally of Abetz, said at the senatorial level.

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