Rita Panahi: Jacinta Price is the warrior Indigenous community needs

Peter Dutton has finally found his mojo, making an announcement he should have made mid-last year and promoting the exact warrior that the Indigenous community needs.

Opposition Leadre Peter Dutton with Senator Jacinta Price. Picture: Emma Brasier

Tuesday was a good day for common sense. Sanity prevailed when Basketball Australia’s expert panel banned a transgender athlete from competing in the NBL1 women’s competition.

Former NBA star Andrew Bogut deserves credit for advocating on behalf of many female players too scared to go public with their concerns.

On Tuesday he posted: “Right decision by @BasketballAus. In saying that, it is beyond alarming we live in a time where an “expert panel” is needed to make these decisions. Don’t let the activists try and overcomplicate what is simple: Women’s sports are for Women.”

But it was another common sense announcement on Tuesday that is far more important for the country; Peter Dutton finally found his mojo and made an announcement he should have made mid-last year.

He has appointed one of the most courageous women in the country, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, as shadow minister for Indigenous Australians.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been appointed as shadow minister for Indigenous Australians. Picture: Emma Brasier

“She’s a fighter. She’s a warrior for Indigenous Australians. And she’s a very proud Territorian,” Mr Dutton said.

She’s all of that and more.

As I wrote back on August 1: “Price should be elevated to shadow minister for Indigenous affairs. And quickly. There is no one within the Coalition who is better equipped to represent the interests of the Indigenous community; she has lived it, seen it and campaigned relentlessly for the genuinely voiceless and vulnerable. And unlike the current shadow minister, she has the courage to call out the harm caused by the activist class.”

It was clear back then that Dutton had made a grave mistake in appointing Julian Leeser to that crucial role.

And we learnt last week just how grave that mistake was with Leeser inflicting considerable harm on the party with his incoherent support of the race-based referendum, aka “the Voice”.

Not only is Leeser willing to damage his own party but he is willing to risk considerable damage to the country by backing what he himself has argued is a deeply flawed model.

Leeser has said he hopes to change the model, but even if he fails he will back it nevertheless.

Price is precisely the warrior the Indigenous community needs; she has a record of ignoring the activist class obsessions of Australia Day and the flag, instead focusing on improving the shameful rates of Indigenous child abuse, neglect and domestic violence.