James Morrow: How Jacinta Price can help Libs remember their forgotten values

In speaking about Liberal ideals, Price is implicitly rejecting the tired criticism that if the party is ever going to win again they need to turn to the left, writes James Morrow.

A week really is a lifetime in politics.

Not even seven days ago, the Liberal Party copped a historic drubbing at polling booths across the nation, leaving Labor in the box seat for one, two, who knows how many more turns.

Yet there are, for a party that has been facing what could be an existential crisis, real signs that the Liberals might still have some fight in them.

Indicator number one: the decision of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to move into the Liberal party room, saying it was her “natural home” where should could “contribute meaningfully”.

The move is said to have invigorated the right of the party, while sending a ripple of worry through its more moderate MPs who were hoping to use Peter Dutton’s defeat as an excuse to turn left.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (right) with then-opposition leader Peter Dutton after the Voice to Parliament referendum was defeated. Picture: AFP

Nationals MPs are also said to be angered by the move, with Nationals leader David Littleproud saying he was “disappointed”.

Price, who shot to fame during the Coalition’s campaign against the Voice to Parliament, had sat with the Nationals as a Country Liberal senator from the NT.

Already she is doing what the rest of the Liberal Party needs to — namely, talk about values.

“I want to bring back our core values of liberty, individual freedom and responsibility, the rule of law, free market and economic prosperity, minimal government intervention, a fair go and most of all, love for our nation, Australia,” Price said, articulating exactly what the party has stood for since Menzies, but which it somehow forgot during the 2025 campaign.

In speaking like this, Price is implicitly rejecting the tired criticism that if the Liberals are ever going to win again they need to turn to the left.

And she is also setting herself up, if she can move to the lower house, at a tilt for the Lodge.

This is getting ahead of events, but her boosters will already be thinking similar thoughts.