Minder ‘monitored Lambie via phone’

SENATOR Jacqui Lambie’s former minder had the politician’s mobile phone linked into his iCloud so he could see where she was and who was calling her, a court has heard.

Former office worker Aryelle Sargent told a Federal Court unfair dismissal hearing she had raised the issue with the senator after former chief of staff Rob Messenger talked openly about how he liked to keep track of his boss.

While the idea of linking phones was to manage the senator’s diary, Ms Sargent told the court Mr Messenger was also seeing who was calling.

“Rob was telling me how he likes to keep track of Jacqui, who gets in her ear and who is influencing her,” Ms Sargent said.

“He was worried about other people calling her and swaying her policy. When people called he could see it on his phone,” she said.

“I approached Jacqui with that knowledge.”

Tammy Tyrell, who is still working for Senator Lambie, also told the hearing she knew about phones being linked.

“Senator Lambie’s phone was linked to the Messengers’. It would mirror calls and messages and allow personal location tracking,” Ms Tyrell told Justice John Snaden.

Another employee, Gemma

Lynd, told the court she always felt there was a hidden agenda while working with the Messengers.

“I believe a husband and wife working together was unprofessional and caused a conflict of interest,” Ms Lynd told the Federal Court in Melbourne on Friday.

“I felt they had a hidden agenda and that certain interactions in the office were to prep me and have me on their side.”

The couple, the former chief of staff and office manager, were sacked in May 2017.

In a Public Interest Disclosure to then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, the Messengers complained of Senator Lambie’s “bullying” behaviour, swearing, excessive drinking and inappropriate comments in the office.

The couple told the prime minister Senator Lambie’s office was a dangerous place to work because the senator was “unstable” and staff were “scared” of her.

Both Ms Lynd and another worker, Karen Philpott, told the hearing it was not the senator who made the workplace toxic but the Messengers’ “micromanaging” and attitude towards the senator which made it an unpleasant place to work.

Ms Lynd formally complained about their office behaviour in a statutory declaration in April 2017.

Ms Sargent gave evidence that she remembered Mr Messenger’s concern about Senator Lambie’s alcohol consumption but no directive from him that staff discourage the senator from drinking during parliamentary sitting weeks.