For much of her short career in Canberra, the usual rules of political gravity have appeared not to apply to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
A firebrand, outspoken and unapologetic about almost everything, she went from a first-term backbencher from the Northern Territory to a member of the shadow cabinet in less than a term. Easily the most prominent opponent of the Indigenous voice to parliament, Price used the referendum campaign to build her political brand exponentially.
Loved by conservatives and Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News, Price defected to the Liberal party room after just a few years in the Senate to run for the deputy leadership, unfettered by campaign missteps such as her disastrous promise that a Peter Dutton-led government would “make Australia great again” back in April.
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Stoking culture wars on Indigenous identity, trans issues and Australia Day, she is routinely described as “a rock star” by conservatives such as Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin. Advance, the incendiary political campaign outfit, loves Price as much as anyone.
But – after last week’s bizarre claim that Labor was politicising Australia’s race-blind immigration program to favour Indian migrants – gravity finally set in for Price on Wednesday.
After repeatedly refusing to apologise for the inflammatory comments, and then refusing to say if she had confidence in the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, Price was sacked from the shadow ministry.
Refusing to endorse Ley on Wednesday was a deliberate provocation that left the opposition leader no choice but to ditch Price and draw a line under a messy week. It has handed Labor a head-start on attack ads for the 2028 election campaign.
Even on the way out, Price did not give ground, insisting only that she should have been clearer in her attacks on Labor’s immigration policies, and claiming the controversy “will ultimately make our party stronger”.
Ley said on Wednesday that Price had failed to apologise for causing Australians of Indian heritage “significant hurt” and described her position in the shadow ministry as “untenable”. It is barely three months since Ley demoted Price the first time, from the shadow cabinet.
Ironically, moving her to the backbench means she will be free of the rules which usually require members of the shadow ministry to toe the party line. Price’s supporters – including Angus Taylor, Sarah Henderson, Matt Canavan and Michaelia Cash – will continue to fete her, and she is likely to be even more in-demand among the Sky After Dark wing of the Coalition.
Ley had no choice but to move. Any other choice would have rendered her authority completely hollow. But by sacking Price, she only exacerbates the schism within the Liberals and Nationals, likely emboldening her critics.
The Coalition is split on core policies, divided on personalities and fighting publicly more days than not. Taylor and his supporters are angry at the result of the post-election leadership ballot, and their agitating on policies for net zero by 2050, emanating from the Nationals and spreading to the Liberals, is a direct threat to Ley’s authority.
The real losers of this sorry saga, however, are the multicultural voters the Liberals need to win back if they have any chance of ever returning to government.
The growing political melee of these past few days has left Indian Australians badly hurt, and further alienates the Liberals from groups who they believe should be part of their natural constituency. Like other migrant communities, they will increasingly look to Labor, a party with an already much more diverse parliamentary makeup.
Opposition after a thumping loss was never going to be easy for the Liberal party. So far at least, it is struggling to hear the message delivered loud and clear on 3 May.
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