{"id":128880,"date":"2025-09-08T23:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128880\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T23:58:07","slug":"pm-says-jacinta-nampijinpa-price-should-apologise-for-indian-remarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/128880\/","title":{"rendered":"PM says Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should apologise for Indian remarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should apologise to Indian Australians for her remarks suggesting more Indian migrants were being brought to Australia because they were Labor leaning.<\/p>\n

In what is becoming a test for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, colleagues have pressured her to make an apology for Senator Nampijinpa Price, who defected to the Liberals just months ago to run against her as Liberal deputy under Angus Taylor.<\/p>\n

This morning, as the issue roils within the Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser took to social media to make an apology on behalf of his colleague \u2014 in the absence of one from either Ms Ley or the NT senator herself.<\/p>\n

“[It] pains me to say it, but I feel like I have to say it. My colleague Jacinta Price said something this week that I want to apologise unreservedly for,” Mr Leeser said.<\/p>\n

“As my leader Sussan Ley said, she was wrong to say it, and she has walked back those remarks and I am pleased that she has.”<\/p>\n

Liberals face political challenges in diverse communities<\/a><\/p>\n

There is open despair inside the Liberal Party about how to rebuild its standing in multicultural communities.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese told ABC Radio National Senator Nampijinpa Price should apologise for the “hurt” she had caused Indian Australians.<\/p>\n

“She should apologise for the hurt that has been caused, and her own colleagues are saying that. But even more importantly, leaders in the community are asking for that<\/a> as well,” Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n

Last night, Senator Nampijinpa Price did not offer an apology in an appearance on Sky News, after colleagues including Alex Hawke and Barnaby Joyce suggested she should do so<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The regret that I have is that I wasn’t clearer in my comments,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said.<\/p>\n

Senator Nampijinpa Price also said Ms Ley had not spoken with her directly “about that issue”.<\/p>\n

“I guess I would expect I would hear directly from the leader herself if it was of huge concern. It didn’t appear to be of huge concern,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t received any such call.”<\/p>\n

\"Opposition<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley declined to apologise when asked three times on ABC Insiders. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n

Ms Ley would not say on Sunday whether she had spoken to the NT senator, and also declined to apologise in that same interview \u2014 though she said the comments were wrong and should not be repeated.<\/p>\n

Senator Nampijinpa Price’s remarks last Wednesday suggesting Indian migrants were coming in large numbers to Australia because their Labor-leaning sentiments boosted the government’s vote has engulfed the Liberal Party in the days since.<\/p>\n

Even as Ms Ley sought to begin repairing relations with Indian Australians, meeting with community groups in Sydney, the senator took to social media to accuse Manager of Opposition Business Alex Hawke of berating her staff and threatening her in a “cowardly” phone call.<\/p>\n

Mr Hawke later rejected those claims, though he confirmed he had advised Senator Nampijinpa Price to apologise.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price should apologise to Indian Australians for her remarks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2324,64,63,89830,83642,75641,44,2325],"class_list":["post-128880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-indian-australians","tag-jacinta-nampijinpa-price","tag-migrants","tag-news","tag-sussan-ley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128880","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=128880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}