‘Not welcome:’ Liberal Senator Jacinta Price was met by Aboriginal protesters on a visit to regional WA

Liberal MP Jacinta Price was met by Aboriginal protesters on a visit to Bunbury in WA’s South West where she talked about the failed Voice referendum.

Shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs Jacinta Price says she “refuses to stay silent” after a group Aboriginal people protested against her visit at an event in WA’s southwest.

Senator Price was in Bunbury, about 170km south of Perth, to attend a town hall with constituents and the Liberal Forrest candidate Ben Small on Friday.

The event was organised by Mr Small which was advertised as a “town hall conversation about Anthony Albanese’s failed Voice referendum”.

Senator Jacinta Price attended an event in Bunbury, WA that was advertised as a conversation about the failed Voice referendum, which was met with opposition from local Aboriginal community leaders. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

But the event was met with opposition by Aboriginal community leaders who said they had not been consulted.

In a letter addressed to Mr Small, Wardandi Custodian Renae Isaacs-Guthrie told the Liberal candidate that Elders and Custodians deserved the respect of being consulted on matters that affected their communities and cultural safety.

“When politicians use our Boodja as platforms for divisive narratives without proper engagement, we feel undermined and silenced on our own Country,” she said.

“Senator Price’s well-documented positions on matters of truth-telling, Voice and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice are considered by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to be harmful and dismissive of lived experiences. “Bringing such perspectives to Wardandi Country without appropriate consultation appears to disregard local cultural protocols and community sentiment.”

Ms Isaacs-Guthrie asked Mr Small for the event not to take place until the concerns she raised could be “respectfully addressed.”

Noongar community leader Robert Eggington said senator Jacinta Price did not talk to them as Aboriginal people and told their story in a “wrong and improper way.” Picture: Facebook

The sentiment was shared by other Aboriginal community leaders who called on people to protest at the event being attended by Senator Price.

Perth man Robert Eggington shared a video on social media from the protest saying Senator Price did not talk to them as Aboriginal people and told their story in a “wrong and improper way.”

“We may not have gotten (The Voice) through parliament, through the referendum, but they certainly can’t stop our voice raising up through the streets and through activism like we are today,” he said.

“Jacinta Price doesn’t belong on our Boodja (land), and I think that this will be the beginning of Jacinta Price being told by Aboriginal Australia, right across all of our nations, to move on and go back to where she comes from.”

Noongar people in WA’s southwest protested outside an event that was attended by Senator Jacinta Price and advertised as a conversation about the failed Voice referendum. Picture: Facebook

In a statement, Senator Price said allegations she was not welcome in certain parts of the country unless she had permission from Indigenous Elders in advance was “extremely disappointing.”

Ms Price said she said she would not be manipulated into a false sense of guilt for causing angst because of the things she advocates for.

“Democracy in Australia means we are all free to agree or disagree with whoever we choose, so long as that is done in a civil and respectful way,” she said.

Noongar people in Bunbury protest outside a town hall attended by Senator Jacinta Price. picture: Facebook

“I have always communicated my views in that vein, and the fact that some individuals are unwilling to extend the same courtesy but use misinformation and weaponise the reinvention of culture against me, is disgraceful.

“This is not an outworking of genuine traditional cultural concern, it is politically-motivated malice.

“This kind of bullying and separatism is what Australians so convincingly voted no to.

“Yet, it seems this is the exact situation that activist types are trying to achieve by eroding the rights of Aboriginal women through violence, intimidation and abuse.”