How Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock are making small business big business in the Senate

They couldn’t seem more different: she wore army camouflage, and he donned the green and gold.

Yet Senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock have forged a strong working relationship in Canberra, bonding over their independence from the major parties — and their focus on small business issues.

Since the May 2022 election, the duo have used their pivotal status in the upper house to guide industrial relations reforms, drive concessions for small business, and recently eked out $10 million in funding to help SMEs handle paid parental leave.

Speaking exclusively to SmartCompany, Senator Lambie explained how the pair bonded over long-shot election campaigns, and have combined their voices to advance small business issues in Parliament.

“You align where you can,” Senator Lambie says.

“We don’t always agree with each other on certain things. But we are certainly sitting in the same place when it comes to small business, we are really worried about that.”

Breakfast, business, and election battles

Lambie’s small business ties were formed after her medical discharge from the Australian Army in 2000, and a years-long legal stoush with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs over compensation.

While running as an independent Senate candidate in 2012, she approached the Burnie Chamber of Commerce to enquire about a role driving memberships.

“I said, ‘If I get in, I need to learn about business’,” Lambie recalls.

“I have a feeling the Chamber, like everybody else down there, didn’t think I’d get in. But from that, we started business breakfasts. I was able to triple their membership in a matter of months.

“And I went round to nearly every business, and I’d listen to what they had to say.”

Lambie secured her Senate seat in 2013 after teaming up with Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party, but defected soon after and struck out on her own.

Jacqui Lambie Network Senator Jacqui Lambie at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, March 18, 2024. Source: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

When Pocock announced his independent run for the Senate in 2022, Lambie offered her advice to the environmental advocate and former star of the Australian national rugby team.

“There’s a bit of a funny story between David and I,” she says.

“Before David was even elected, I went to have breakfast with him and wish him the best of luck.

“I’m not a rugby union person. I’m an AFL person, right? So I had no idea who David was until I actually Googled the candidates beforehand, and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this guy’s actually quite big. Rugby union, okay’.”

With introductions out of the way, she offered her hard-earned insights, telling Pocock the small business community may have strong political views — but, by necessity, prioritises business operations over campaign donations.

“I said, ‘Mate, there’s no way in hell in your first run, you’re gonna make it over the line. I don’t mean to give any negatives but go hard.'”

“He did make it over, and good on him,” Lambie continues.

Once he secured his Senate seat, Pocock referenced struggling ACT small businesses in his inaugural address, along with his deep concerns over climate change and biodiversity.

“I imagine he’ll be here for quite some time,” Lambie predicts.

“You know, he’s performed really, really, really well, for somebody that’s coming in brand new, he’s smashed it. He really, really gets it.

“From that, that friendship formed.”

Strong advocacy in the Senate

It’s a friendship that has contributed to considerable amendments targeting small business in a Senate where crossbenchers are often called upon to determine the shape and passage of new legislation.

There was the federal government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation in 2022, which got through after Pocock secured a carve-out for small businesses from the single-interest multi-enterprise bargaining stream (Lambie wanted businesses of any size to have opt-out powers from multi-employer deals).

The next slab of industrial relations reforms put forward by the government, the Closing Loopholes package, was also reformed after contributions from the Senate crossbenchers.

Lambie and Pocock, who called for the contentious bill to be split into two so uncontroversial measures could be passed before the 2023 Christmas break, took a public stance against Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke’s plan to pass it in one go.

But an extraordinary and last-minute deal between saw the uncontroversial measures, along with ‘same job, same pay’ rules, and wage theft criminalisation reforms, passed on the final parliamentary sitting day of the year.

The remaining reforms passed both houses of Parliament in February 2024.

That Closing Loopholes deal caused a stir among groups like the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), which publicly campaigned against the measures alongside other business representative groups.

In a letter circulated to senators, COSBOA CEO Luke Achterstraat said the Burke-Lambie-Pocock deal was “undermining the goodwill” formed between it and the crossbenchers.

However, the relationship appears to have thawed since then, with Achterstraat appearing alongside Lambie and Pocock this month to celebrate new funding for small businesses as part of the government’s paid parental leave plan.

Council of Small Business Organisations Australia CEO Luke Achterstraat, Independent senator David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie Network Senator Jacqui Lambie at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, March 18, 2024. Source: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

United Australia Party’s Senator Ralph Babet co-sponsored the amendments, but it was Lambie, Pocock, and Achterstraat who fronted the media together.

“I think you’ll find that relationship has been quite smoothed over,” Lambie says.

“It’s fine, let’s just get on with it,” she continues.

“It’s no good COSBOA being against David and I, and vice versa, because it is not helpful for small business.”

In response, Achterstraat told SmartCompany COSBOA welcomed the crossbenchers’ leadership on SME issues in the Senate, and opened the door to future discussions about small business priorities.

“We’re seeing sustained advocacy by them,” he said.

“And they’re not simply looking for flash in the pan issues, they’re looking at a breadth of issues.”

He would not need to look far for other small business issues being championed by the crossbenchers: Senator Pocock on Tuesday told The Mandarin that small businesses ought to see more of the $70 billion in government contracts.

“We need to ensure we are investing in them and not just going with multinationals,” Pocock said.

The months ahead

Looking ahead, into the months before a pivotal federal budget, Lambie says she will be keeping a close eye on government spending commitments — including the new $10 million plan to assist SMEs as they administrate paid parental leave.

“I am worried just because they say there’s $10 million to go and do this and that — we will see about that,” says Lambie, who wanted the federal government to handle paid parental leave payments for small business employees.

“It will be very interesting to see what is in the May budget that’s going to give relief to small businesses… I’ll be keeping tabs on that as well,” she says.

“I’ll be very, very interested. I don’t expect a lot.”

SmartCompany has contacted Pocock for comment.