{"id":128512,"date":"2025-09-08T20:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T20:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128512\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T20:24:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T20:24:16","slug":"nts-indian-community-calls-for-apology-from-jacinta-nampijinpa-price-over-hurtful-migration-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128512\/","title":{"rendered":"NT’s Indian community calls for apology from Jacinta Nampijinpa Price over ‘hurtful’ migration comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been urged to publicly apologise to her Indian constituents in the Northern Territory over “hurtful” comments she made about Indian migration.<\/p>\n

During an ABC interview last week, Senator Nampijinpa Price said “large numbers” of Indian people were being allowed to migrate to Australia by the Labor federal government because “the [Indian] community votes for Labor”.<\/p>\n

She has since sought to clarify the comments and conceded she had been mistaken<\/a> over her insinuation that Indian migrants were being allowed into Australia to bolster Labor’s vote.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky News on Monday evening, Senator Nampijinpa Price said she had a “great relationship with Indian members within [her] community”, but added that “mass migration is of huge concern”.<\/p>\n

“It’s not about who’s coming in, it’s about how many migrants are coming,” she said.<\/p>\n

The vice-president of Darwin’s Indian Cultural Society, Meeta Ramkumar, said the fact that the senator had “sought to walk back” her comments was “not enough”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Meeta Ramkumar described the senator’s comments as “baseless” and “offensive”. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

“We were shocked that a leader of her stature could actually come out in public and make sweeping, generic, baseless statements about the Indian community,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It was quite offensive and hurtful.”<\/p>\n

In a letter to the senator, sent on Monday, the group said her comments undermined the Indian community’s valuable contributions to Australian society.<\/p>\n

“Following your public statements we have been compelled to speak out against your ill-founded racist remarks,” the letter said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Darwin’s Indian Cultural Society has written a letter to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price calling on her to apologise for her comments. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

“As a person elected to represent Territorians in the federal parliament, we express, in the strongest possible terms, that the comments made by you towards our community members are \u2026 perpetuating harmful and negative attitudes towards Indian people.<\/p>\n

“Instead of standing up for our community, you have made unfounded sweeping statements without any factual backing.<\/p>\n

“We call on you to immediately issue a public apology to the Indian community for your remarks and provide a written response to this letter.”<\/p>\n

In the letter, the Indian Cultural Society of Darwin said it was not affiliated with any political party.<\/p>\n

Senator Nampijinpa Price has also been urged to apologise to Australia’s Indian community by senior figures<\/a> from within the Liberal Party.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has an electorate office in Darwin. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

Indian-born politician defends senator<\/p>\n

Although she sits in the Liberal Party room, Senator Nampijinpa Price is a member of the Country Liberal Party (CLP) in the NT.<\/p>\n

The CLP currently holds power in the NT, with the territory government featuring a record number of elected members of South Asian heritage<\/a>, including two Indian-born members.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The Country Liberal Party has three MLAs of South Asian heritage in its 17-member majority government. (ABC News: Andie Smith)<\/p>\n

One of those is NT Minister for Multicultural Affairs Jinson Charls, who defended the senator’s comments at a press conference on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

“There was a context to that, and there’s nothing much I can further add to that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I was out at the opening of a Hindu temple [in Darwin on the weekend], and we met, like, hundreds of people, and no one was really concerned about that.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jinson Charls said only “one or two people” asked him at the event about the senator’s comments. (ABC: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

In an additional statement, he said: “The CLP Government respects, supports, and celebrates multiculturalism and you only have to look at the make-up of the Territory’s parliament to see that.”<\/p>\n

Senator Nampijinpa Price has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been urged to publicly apologise to her Indian constituents in the Northern Territory over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,20294,5214,20295,9281,10165,89639,88744,89638,71305,89640,19931,78250,44,84,89641],"class_list":["post-128512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-clp","tag-community","tag-country-liberal-party","tag-immigration","tag-indian","tag-indian-cultural-society","tag-jacinta-price","tag-jinson-charls","tag-letter","tag-meeta-ramkumar","tag-migration","tag-multiculturalism","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-racist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}