Axed senator still welcome after failure to back leader
Coalition senators say Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will eventually return to the frontbench, despite being dumped for not endorsing her leader Sussan Ley.
Source: Seven Network
Jacinta Price, who was dumped from the Liberal frontbench over her refusal to apologise for controversial Indian migration remarks and to back her leader, is still welcome in the Coalition.
On Wednesday night, Liberal leader Sussan Ley asked Price to step down from her opposition portfolios, following the Northern Territory senator’s claims the federal government had boosted Indian migrant numbers to bolster its vote.
Ley’s decision came just hours after Price spoke at a press conference in Perth on Wednesday afternoon, where she again refused to apologise for her “clumsy” comments and claimed members of the Indian community had reached out to her in solidarity.
She accepted Ley’s decision, while taking a swipe at colleagues she said had chosen to “indulge agenda-driven media commentary”.
“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,” Price said in a lengthy statement.
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Ley said Price’s comments had been deeply hurtful to Indian Australians, should not have been made and she should have apologised.
But Price’s refusal to endorse her as leader on Wednesday afternoon, and again during a later conversation between the pair, made her position in the shadow ministry “untenable”.
“Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price critically failed to provide confidence in my leadership of the Liberal Party,” Ley said.
Ley says Price’s position in the shadow ministry was untenable. Picture: AAP
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“Confidence in the leader is a requirement for serving in the shadow ministry.”
Despite that, Ley said she would still warmly welcome Price in the party.
“Her membership of the Liberal Party is something we continue to welcome and support,” the leader said.
Price shifted from the Nationals party room to the Liberal party room in the aftermath of the Coalition’s defeat at the federal election in May.
Senior members of the Coalition had repeatedly urged her to apologise for her comments, with the NSW Liberals saying sorry on her behalf.
Instead, Price called for the Coalition to continue to hold the Albanese government to account on migration numbers.
-with AAP
