Jacinta Nampijinpa Price announces candidacy for deputy leader of Liberal Party

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has announced her bold plan just days after defecting to the Liberal Party room — a move that had some brand her a “traitor”.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has announced she will run for the deputy Liberal Party leadership and is backing Angus Taylor for the top job just days after joining the Liberal party room.

Hugely popular with the membership base and political donors, Senator Price has the right as a Country Liberal Party MP to choose which party room she sits in.

Endorsing Angus Taylor’s bid for the leadership, Senator Price confirmed on Sunday morning that she will run as his deputy.

“Today I announce my candidacy for Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and my endorsement for Angus Taylor’s candidacy for Leader,” Ms Price said.

“As I’ve said with respect to my decision to change party rooms, these are not matters which I take lightly and this decision today brings with it a great deal of responsibility which I fully accept.

“There is no question that returning to our roots as a party is critical right now. If we want to inspire and empower Australians across our country, we must return to these roots.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has announced she is running for Liberal deputy leader. Picture: Gera Kazakov

Ms Price said the party must stand for the “forgotten people” and “mainstream Australians”.

“I think of my grandparents who were by no means the elite, building their first home by hand with hessian bags and washing their clothes in the creek in Warners Bay, NSW,’’ she said.

“But they saw a spark, a vision of a brighter future for generations to come.”

But it’s her decision to run for a leadership position before she’s even sat in the party room that’s raised eyebrows given the deputy has an important pastoral care role

“She’s perfectly entitled to put her hand up. The party room will decide that but people will have different ideas about that I think,’’ Liberal Senator Dave Sharma said.

Her big switch to the Liberal Party is being backed by former prime minister Tony Abbott and other conservatives.

A vote on the Liberal leadership will take place in Canberra on Tuesday.

‘Traitor’ claim

While her defection is a huge coup for the Liberals her move has enraged the Nationals who called it the act of a “traitor.”

“By doing this Jacinta is the Lidia Thorpe of the Coalition … before the votes are even counted, she’s switched to another side,” Nationals Senator Canavan said.

Senator Canavan announced on Friday that he will challenge David Littleproud for the leadership of the Nationals.

“(Ms Nampijinpa Price) has disenfranchised the voter, disappointed the members of the Country Liberal Party, she used Nationals Party funds to elect herself and before she’s even elected she’s turned around,’’ he said.

“It’s a traitorous act.”

Senator Price will run alongside Angus Taylor. Picture: NewsWire / Monique Harmer

Senator Price and abortion stance

Last year, senior Coalition women rebuked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s comments about abortion after she suggested she cannot support any abortion over 12 weeks of gestation.

Sussan Ley, Jane Hume and Bridget McKenzie – three of the most senior female members of the Liberal and National parties – warned that a “Coalition government has no plans, no policy and no interest in unwinding women’s reproductive rights.”

Senator Price has told the Nine newspapers she “cannot agree” with later term abortions, which she claimed was “anywhere past the [first] trimester as far as I’m concerned … Full-term becomes infanticide.”

Liberal MPs welcome Senator Price

Prominent Liberal senator James Paterson, who is regarded as an ally of Mr Taylor in the leadership tussle, welcomed the switch.

“Delighted by friend @jacintanampijinpa has joined the @liberalaus. Welcome home Jacinta!” he posted on Instagram.

But the decision has clearly angered Nationals Leader David Littleproud.

“The Nationals negotiated an extra position in the Shadow Cabinet before the election, to give Senator Nampijinpa Price a promotion and Shadow Ministerial opportunity,” he said.

“The Nationals were the first to lead the ‘No’ case in relation to the Voice, backing Senator Nampijinpa Price early and before anyone else did.

Bitter factional fight as two contenders emerge

A bitter factional fight has already erupted with both camps trading blows.

Mr Taylor’s camp assert that Sussan Ley never spoke up in the budget lock up against the treasury spokesman’s disastrous decision to oppose Labor’s tax cuts.

She is being backed by Liberal powerbroker Alex Hawke who was also pivotal in the rise of Scott Morrison.

Ms Ley’s supporters assert that Mr Taylor has been an “absolute disaster” in the economic portfolio.

Who is Sussan Ley?

The mother of three famously secured her pilot licence when she was 20 years old and worked briefly as an air traffic controller before joining the Australian Tax Office in Albury.

She also changed the spelling of her first name to Sussan, after discovering a numerology theory and joined a punk band in her youth.

More recently, she dressed as Tina Turner to raise money for a cancer charity.

Sussan Ley in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

She was first promoted to cabinet by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in December 2014, replacing Peter Dutton who was moved to the immigration portfolio in a cabinet reshuffle.

She ultimately served as Finance Minister and Health Minister before she was forced to step aside from cabinet over an expenses scandal.

During that period, Labor’s famed dirt unit leaked a dossier of travel records to newspaper outlets to engineer a political crisis.

Leaked emails in the book Party Animals outlined the political research unit’s success in triggering two of the biggest scandals to rock the Abbott and Turnbull government which weakened Tony Abbott’s leadership and also sparked a major review of travel rules.

Meanwhile, prominent anti-Voice campaigner Jacinta Price dropped a bombshell on Thursday revealing that she will move to sit with the Liberal Party in an effort to “rebuild” the party after a blustering election loss.

Co-ordinated attacks on Angus Taylor

The fight between Ms Ley and Liberal Party treasury spokesman Angus Taylor erupted on election night with her supporters slamming him as “an absolute disaster”.

While the contest in theory isn’t a factional fight, Mr Taylor is associated with the right faction and Ms Ley the Centre Right led by powerbroker Alex Hawke.

Mr Taylor, though, may have a harder time, with one colleague blasting his performance as the opposition’s numbers man.

“I have concerns about his capability,” Liberal senator Hollie Hughes told the ABC.

“I feel that we have zero economic policy to sell. I don’t know what he’s been doing for three years.

Outgoing Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes has beef with Angus Taylor because he didn’t support her preselection fight.

Originally published as Jacinta Nampijinpa Price announces candidacy for deputy leader of Liberal Party