‘You’re a nobody’: Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in hotel confrontation
An Indigenous activist has told news.com.au she was called “a nobody” by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in an extraordinary hotel confrontation.
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Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has told an Aboriginal activist and mother of seven she is “nobody” after the woman confronted her in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel in Adelaide.
The extraordinary scene unfolded in Adelaide on Thursday night as Senator Nampijinpa Price, who is tipped to run for the position of the Liberal Party’s deputy leader, checked into the hotel on her way to Canberra.
As she tried to do so, she was confronted by a group of activists and protesters.
In the video, Aboriginal activist Marianne Mackay, 47, a Noongar woman from Kwinana south of Perth, shouted repeatedly at the Northern Territory Senator.
“You might be a Senator but you are not respected by your own people … your people don’t love you”.
As she walks away, Senator Price tells the woman, “you’re a nobody” and “I don’t care.”
The video was first reported by The Australian newspaper’s Paige Taylor. It shows Senator Nampijinpa Price checks into the hotel and continues to walk away into the hotel lifts.
“She told me I was a nobody, belittling me, yeah, it’s like, I work hard for our community, like my elders,’’ Ms Mackay told news.com.au.
“And I have a lot of respect for my elders and to me, the respect and the permission for my elders and my people to speak means more to me than any government labelled like her.
“Being a senator, being a senator is nothing to me. I would rather have the respect and love and permission of my people to stand up and be a voice for us than have any government.
“And so when, when I saw her there, and she said, you know that Noongars have no law and culture. So I said to her, ‘Well, actually, we very strong in culture.’”
Noongar is a term referring to the Aboriginal people of the south-west region of Western Australia.
During a recent visit to WA, local activists said that the person who invited Senator Nampijinpa Price to Bunbury should have contacted local Noongar Elders.
“We’re not very happy how that came about it, of us being notified by media and not in person,” Ms Williams said.
“If you’re coming on someone else’s boundaries in different areas, the right thing by us Aboriginal people is to make sure you are welcome on that land, and not to just show up and making these decisions and actions that she is causing in our communities.”
Ms Mackay was an instigator of the 2012 protest outside The Lobby restaurant in Canberra on Australia Day 2012 that prompted police to escort Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard before Australia’s first female prime minister lost her shoe in the melee.
She is now studying law at Murdoch University and is the chair of an Aboriginal health organisation.
As a Country Liberal Party member from the Northern Territory, Senator Price has the choice of whether she sits in the Nationals or the Liberals party room but her big call this week to now sit with the Liberals has caused a massive blow up.
Asked if she planned to put her hand up for the leadership team - such as running as Angus Taylor’s deputy - she refused to telegraph her plans.
“Look, I’m not going to speculate on that right now,” MsSenator Nampijinpa Price told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“This is a huge step that I have undertaken. I’ve been welcomed by Sussan Ley to the Liberal Party room, which I’m very grateful for.
“All kind of speculation is running rife.”
But when asked whether she would one day consider leading the Liberal Party, Senator Nampijinpa Price refused to rule it out.
“Well, that’s a huge ask, a massive ask,’’ she said.
“I certainly need to learn the ropes. Each day, the step that I take is looking at how do we espouse Australian values...and what is it the Australian people need and are asking for.”
Senator Nampijinpa Price said she spoke to her party president, National Party senate colleagues and Nationals leader David Littleproud, before the move.
“I wanted to do it in a respectful way,” she said. “So I did speak to my colleagues. I even spoke to Sussan Ley as well.”
Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott has strongly backed the move.
“He’s explained to me that he supports that move. Tony has always been encouraging and supportive of me and of my mother,” she said.
“But to those who want to suggest he’s running the show...’’ Senator Price started before insisting that was not the case.
Jacinta Price emerges as shock candidate for deputy
The prominent anti-Voice campaigner 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.
“I am eager to fight for the best interests of all Australians as part of the Coalition,” Senator Nampijinpa Price said in a statement.
“I believe I will be more effective in this regard if I am a member of the Liberal Party, especially as the party faces a significant rebuild after Saturday.
“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.”
As a Country Liberal senator from the Northern Territory, she has the choice whether to sit in the party room of the Liberal Party of the Coalition partner the Nationals.
Traitor attack
While her defection is a huge coup for the Liberals her move has enraged the Nationals who called it the act of a “traitor”.
The Nationals are already set to lose their deputy leader Perin Davey after the election result and the defection could mean the party loses its “major party status” in the Senate.
“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 Matt Canavan told The Daily Telegraph.
“(Senator 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.
“It’s a traitorous act.”
While it isn’t clear yet she is running on a ticket with Liberal Angus Taylor, Mr Taylor quickly moved to note he was “delighted” by Senator Nampijinpa Price’s decision describing her as a “tireless advocate for Liberal values and a good friend”.
“Jacinta will be another strong voice at a time the Liberal Party must rebuild,” he posted on Twitter.
Senator Price and abortion stance
Last year, senior Coalition women rebuked Senator 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 Nampijinpa 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
Moments following her statement, 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,” Mr Littleproud 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.
“I appreciate Senator Nampijinpa Price has ambition that extends beyond the possibilities of The Nationals and I wish her well.
“The Liberals will need to rebuild after Saturday’s election and Senator Nampijinpa Price will play a key role in that recovery, while The Nationals are proud to have kept all of our Lower House seats.”
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 on Monday.
Originally published as ‘You’re a nobody’: Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in hotel confrontation
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