Federal Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has removed Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from the Coalition’s Shadow Ministry after the Northern Territory senator refused to apologise for her comments about Indian migrants.
“Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has failed to do so and will no longer serve in my Shadow Ministry,” Ms Ley said in a statement on Wednesday. “Today, despite being given sufficient time and space to do so, Senator Nampijinpa Price failed to apologise for remarks which have caused Australians of Indian heritage significant hurt. She also refused to provide confidence in my leadership of the Liberal Party and sadly, that has made her position untenable in my Shadow Ministry. The Liberal Party I lead will respect, reflect and represent modern Australia.”
Senator Price issued her own statement shortly afterwards, confirming she had been asked to resign. “This evening, I spoke with the Leader of the Federal Liberal Party and Federal Opposition, Sussan Ley, who has asked me to step down from the shadow ministry. I have accepted the Leader’s decision. And I reiterated my regret in not being clearer in my comments on the ABC last Wednesday.”
She expressed disappointment at how the episode unfolded inside her party. “Nevertheless, I took the opportunity to express to the Leader my disappointment that some colleagues disregarded the key point I was making about the damaging impacts of mass migration. And that some colleagues instead chose to indulge agenda-driven media commentary on this matter.”
Senator Price repeated that she bore no hostility towards Indian Australians. “To reiterate comments from my earlier statement: I never intended to be disparaging towards our Indian community. And I wish no ill-will whatsoever to the Indian community—or any other migrant group.”
But she stood by her critique of the government’s migration program. “My concern—as it is for millions of Australians—is Labor’s mass migration agenda and its ramifications. My concern is not migration itself—it’s the magnitude of migration. Migration at the current scale and pace is putting excessive pressures on housing, infrastructure and services. And that makes life tougher for all families. I want to see a better life for all families—whether you’re a migrant, a resident, or a citizen—and regardless of your background.”
She said she would continue her career from the backbench. “Although my time as the Shadow Minister for Defence Industry and Defence Personnel has been cut short, it has been an honour to serve in the shadow defence portfolio. Although I will be returning to the backbench, I will continue to speak up on issues which are in the national interest and that are important to millions of Australians.”
Senator Price also flagged her ongoing priorities in Indigenous affairs and wider national debates. “Be that on Indigenous issues: The plight of those in remote communities. The ongoing romanticisation of traditional culture that inhibits addressing the root causes of Indigenous violence today. The ineffectiveness of bloated bureaucracies that have done nothing to ‘close the gap’. And the need to push back against activists who, ignoring the referendum outcome and the will of the Australian people, march on with the goals of segregation and reparations under the guise of that Orwellian phrase ‘truth-telling’.”
She said she would continue speaking against what she called the “ramifications of mass migration” and “the economically immiserating and freedom eroding policy of Net Zero.”
“This has been a disappointing episode for the Liberal Party,” she said. “I will learn from it. I’m sure others will too. No individual is bigger than a party. And I’m sure events of the past week will ultimately make our party stronger.”
The public split marks the sharpest point yet in the Coalition’s handling of Senator Price’s remarks, which drew condemnation across political lines and triggered widespread backlash in Australia’s Indian community.
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