Ex-Lambie senator Tammy Tyrell found a home with Labor

Tasmanian independent senator Tammy Tyrrell has shocked political onlookers by joining the Labor Party, declaring it “a good fit”.

The move was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today, the same day Liberal leader Angus Taylor is due to give his budget reply speech, saying that his new colleague was a “great Tasmanian and a great Australian”, who had spent her life helping others.

The former electorate officer for Senator Lambie left the Network in 2024, saying her former boss had indicated she was “not happy” with how she had been representing the party. Tyrrell justified the switch by saying she had been clear she was “not going to be judged by the media for flip-flopping”.

Tyrrell, who is up for re-election in 2028, confirmed she will seek another term. But her chances of being re-elected were complicated by the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, with the party founder’s daughter, Lee Hanson, again set to contest a Senate seat in 2028. To secure a safe spot in the top two of Labor’s Senate ticket at the 2028 election, she will need to be preselected ahead of faction stalwart Helen Polley. If she fell short, she would then have to joust against a number of other candidates to secure the risky third position on the ticket.