Lambert was an alderman on the Darwin City Council prior to his election as Lord Mayor, and begun his working life in the Territory as a teacher.
During this time the city council elected Lambert as their leader from their own ranks — an unprecedented event in Darwin's history, which usually votes for the mayor via public by-elections.
[2] Lambert publicly described himself as the "caretaker" of the role during his reign, much of which was spent dealing with the troubled legacy of his predecessor, and did not contest the April 2008 mayoral election, when he was succeeded by Graeme Sawyer.
Lambert began expressing an interest in contesting the 2008 territory election for the conservative Country Liberal Party not long after his retirement as Lord Mayor.
He declined to state at the time who he had voted for at the 2005 election, refusing to deny reports that he had had a sign for Labor minister Kon Vatskalis in his yard during that campaign.