The facts
Independent senator Jacqui Lambie condemned a cartoon from One Nation’s “Please Explain” series that depicted her saying she could not laugh because of a prolapsed vagina and added a crude sound effect. Lambie had spoken about her condition and the lack of care for female veterans in the Senate in August. In response, she said voters dealing with cost‑of‑living pressure did not need more nastiness and urged Pauline Hanson’s male colleagues to ask the party to remove the image. Industry Minister Tim Ayres called the cartoon a “nasty style of politics” that attacks tens of thousands of Australian women with such health issues. Independent MP Monique Ryan also criticised the cartoon, praising Lambie’s courage in speaking openly about a condition that affects about one in twelve Australian women.
Our take
One Nation has managed to turn a serious fucking policy debate into a juvenile gag that would make a kindergarten teacher blush. The party’s latest “Please Explain” cartoon takes a legitimate health issue – vaginal prolapse, a condition that affects roughly one in twelve Australian women – and reduces it to a crude sound effect, as if a fart joke could somehow distract from the Albanese government’s Digital Duty of Care legislation. Lambie’s decision to speak openly about her own experience was meant to shine a light on gaps in veteran health care, not to hand political opponents a cheap punchline. Instead, Pauline Hanson’s team chose to weaponise her vulnerability, a move that industry minister Tim Ayres rightly called a “nasty style of politics.” The cartoon also re‑hashes One Nation’s long‑standing “traitor” jab at Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, showing the party’s penchant for piling slurs on top of a single insult. Monique Ryan’s praise of Lambie’s honesty underscores how rare it is for politicians to support a colleague facing such personal ridicule. In a landscape where political discourse often feels like a circus, this episode proves that some parties are content to be the clowns – the kind that draw on the floor with a whoopee cushion and a crass caption. It’s a reminder that when leaders resort to bodily‑function jokes, they’re not just low‑balling the conversation; they’re actively undermining the dignity of the very people they claim to represent. The public deserves better than a cartoon that treats a medical condition as a punchline, and the backlash from across the aisle shows that at least some Australian politicians still recognise that line.
