Indigenous Senator Jacinta Price accuses journalist Peter FitzSimons of conducting aggressive interview
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has accused journalist Peter FitzSimons of being “very aggressive” during a passionate interview about the Indigenous Voice.
Media
Don't miss out on the headlines from Media. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has lashed out at Peter FitzSimons, accusing him of being “very bloody aggressive” during a phone interview for a newspaper story.
The Country Liberal Party Senator said in a now-deleted Facebook post the Sydney Morning Herald journalist and columnist accused her of “giving racists a voice”. FitzSimons denies the claims
“I don’t know if I’d do another interview with the bloke again. He accused me of giving racists a voice but that wasn’t printed,” part of her post, shared after the interview was published, read.
The post was removed on Sunday evening, according to The Australian.
Want to stream your news? Flash lets you stream 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >
She has since told The Australian FitzSimons was “condescending and rude” towards her, however the author has firmly denied her allegations.
Their interview, conducted on Thursday, started off “quite well” but FitzSimons became “aggressive” as it progressed, Senator Price told the publication.
“I’m not a wilting violet but he’s a very aggressive bloke, his interview style is very bloody aggressive, he doesn’t need to launch in,” she said.
“Accusing me of somehow giving power to racists because the issues I raise are confronting – he loses the point completely. I said to him, ‘Get down from the bloody ivory tower and come out to one of my communities’.”
FitzSimons told The Australian her claims were “complete and utter … nonsense” and recalled their exchange as a “friendly interview, nice text exchange at its conclusion”.
He said he recorded the whole conversation, with her permission, and sought her approval before the interview, which covered the Indigenous Voice to parliament, the politician’s upbringing, colonisation and reconciliation was published.
Senator Price previously came to the defence of Pauline Hanson after she stormed out of the Senate during an Acknowledgement of Country.
She told Nine Radio she sympathised with “Pauline”, saying: “while I understand the need for acknowledgment is important, we’ve just been absolutely saturated with it”.
“It’s getting to the point where it’s actually removing the sacredness of traditional culture and practices. It’s become almost like a throwaway line.
“We don’t want to see all these symbolic gestures, we want to see real action.”
Senator Price’s opposition to the Indigenous Voice
Senator Price said she would “probably not” support the referendum when grilled about her controversial stance on ABC’s Q+A last week.
“I’ll be completely honest, there are more pressing issues,” she said, revealing her priority was to shore up education funding for Alice Springs and tackle alcoholism in Indigenous communities.
Senator Price said she didn’t like the idea of enshrining an Indigenous Voice within the Australian constitution, arguing it would further marginalise Indigeous Australians.
“I wouldn’t want to see us divided up along the lines of race in that regard, and I don’t want to continue to pour money into an industry that has been driven on the back of the misery of Indigenous Australians and propping up another bureaucracy,” she said.
“It’s not something new. It’s just enshrining a bureaucracy into the constitution.
“And if there are bureaucracies that have failed and [people] have not been accountable, how are we going to adjust this, which will exist in the constitution and can’t be dismantled should it fail?”
Originally published as Indigenous Senator Jacinta Price accuses journalist Peter FitzSimons of conducting aggressive interview
Alan Jones’ luxe apartment raided by cops
Police are combing through Alan Jones’ luxury apartment following his arrest over allegations of indecent assault and sexual touching incidents.
Huge change in Aussie workplaces revealed
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says there has been some ‘positive progress’ in gender equality, even as major businesses are rocked with harassment scandals.