CLP’s Jacinta Price lashes out at Alice Springs reporter: ‘He is the lowest of the low’

CLP candidate for Lingiari, Jacinta Price has lashed out at a reporter for criticising her performance as an Alice Springs councillor, calling him “the lowest of the low”. But the reporter has said his original report consisted “almost entirely of facts: they speak for themselves on Ms Price’s record”.

CLP candidate for Lingiari and former Alice Springs councillor Jacinta Price hit out at strongly at some criticism form journalists. Picture: JEFF TAN

CLP candidate for Lingiari Jacinta Price has lashed out at a reporter for criticising her performance as an Alice Springs councillor, calling him “the lowest of the low” and an “angry old white man”.

Reporter Erwin Chlanda publicly criticised Ms Price in an Alice Springs News story on Monday, for her “grossly inadequate” attendance at council meetings in the 18 months before she resigned last week to run in the Federal election.

Six of the councillors elected in the 2017 Alice Springs Town Council elections, from left: Jamie de Brenni, Eli Melky, Jimmy Cocking, Jacinta Price, Mayor Damien Ryan, and Matt Paterson. Picture: Emma Murray

Ms Price fired back at the reporter the next day in a furious text message sent to his wife and fellow journalist Kieran Finnane which was read: “Your husband is the lowest of the low, bottom of the barrel, angry old white man I have ever known.”

Ms Price told the NT News she was considering suing the independent publication for defamation.

“There are a number of half-truths and misrepresentations made about me in that story,” she said.

“I feel like I’ve been singled out by him for a while now.”

“I do want to apologise to my supporters if they felt I let them down on this.

“It was not my intention to when I sent the private message to Kieran Finnane during a moment of weakness while under pressure.”

Meeting minutes from 2017 to 2019 shows the 13th Alice Springs council held 20 ordinary meetings during Ms Price’s time as a councillor — she attended 11 of them, sent apologies for her absence five times and called in four times.

On his website, Mr Chlanda said part of Ms Price’s text message was “surely an abrogation of an election candidate’s obligation to participate in the democratic process, which includes answering questions put by journalists.”

He added the original report “consists almost entirely of facts: they speak for themselves on Ms Price’s record”.

Ms Price was also a member of council’s Youth Action Group Committee, which works to engage kids in positive initiatives each year, and she only went to one of the 12 meetings the group had held since November 2017.

“My work takes me interstate so I couldn’t attend every single meeting but I would always be there when I was in town,” Ms Price said.

“But it’s not like I’m the only councillor who has ever done this, many people do it.”.