Jacinta Nampijinpa Price backtracks on Indian migrants comment

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has back-pedalled on her controversial Indian migration claims but maintains criticism of Labor’s ‘mass-migration agenda’ in a speech at a party fundraiser.

Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she “regrets” not being “clear” in her comments to the ABC that Labor was accepting “large numbers” of Indian migrants to bolster its vote.

However, she has doubled down on the “media reporting” of the matter, which she said had been “agenda-driven” and took her comments out of context.

In a speech at a fundraiser for NSW Liberal MP Tim James on Friday night, Senator Price also repeated her concerns about the Chinese Communist Party and how Australians appeared to be more worried about “President Trump’s tariffs” than “an authoritarian regime”.

Coalition MPs have been in damage control since she told the ABC on Wednesday that the federal government was bringing in migrants “from particular countries over others” to win votes, naming the “Indian community” as an example.

In her speech to the fundraiser, Senator Price said her comments were not intended to be “disparaging toward our Indian community”, while noting her own children “have Indian heritage themselves”.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says her comments on Indian migrants in Australia were taken out of context. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“I want to be really clear in my remarks tonight,” she said.

“I regret not being clear in my comments on the ABC this week. I know that many Australians of Indian ancestry and Indian migrants … are distressed, not only by my comments, but reading the associated newspaper coverage.

“I sought to correct and clarify my comments after the ABC interview, but I’ve also been disappointed by some media reporting, which has been agenda-driven and wrenched my comments out of context.

“My comments were not intended to be disparaging toward our Indian community.”

Senator Price said her concern was – “as is for millions of Australians” – Labor’s “mass-migration agenda”.

“Migration at the current scale and pace is putting excessive pressures on housing, infrastructure and services, and that makes life tougher for everyone, and not just for the citizens of Australia, but for the recently arrived migrants and permanent residents who want to join Team Australia as well,” she said.

“We must wind back mass-migration.”