Jacinta Price poised to join Nationals partyroom

The Deputy Mayor of the Alice Springs beat sitting senator Sam McMahon in the Northern Territory preselection battle on Saturday.

Jacinta Price this year. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is expected to join the Nationals’ party room if elected to the Senate, after she ousted incumbent Samantha McMahan in a preselection battle.

The Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs was victorious in claiming the Country Liberal Party’s coveted top Senate spot in the Northern Territory on Saturday.

Senator McMahon claimed allegations that she was intoxicated in the chamber last week were part of a campaign to undermine her chance of winning ­preselection.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who backed Senator McMahon in preselection, said he had been informed on Sunday that Ms Price intended to sit in his party room. The confirmation that Ms Price is likely to follow the tradition of CLP senators joining the Nationals party room will quell internal concerns that her choice to sit with the Liberals would lose the junior party a seat in the ministry.

Mr Joyce said he accepted the decision and was looking forward to working with Ms Price.

“She brings an incredible skill set into the parliament,” he said.

“She’ll be a great advocate for the issues of the Territory and not only the Territory but across Australia as both a woman and a person of Aboriginal heritage. These are the sort of people we need in our parliament.”

Queensland senator Matt Canavan said Ms Price would be a “welcomed and incredibly influential member of the … party room”.

Ms Price securing the top spot on the CLP’s Senate ticket – a winnable position – sets out a clear pathway to her joining parliament after the next election.

If elected to the Senate, Ms Price would be the third Indigenous MP to represent the Coalition in the upper house.

Ms Price’s bid for the Senate sparked an internal stoush within the Coalition this month, with some MPs arguing she should target Labor-held Northern Territory seats – Lingiari and Solomon– rather than contesting a Senate spot held by Senator McMahon.

But Ms Price, who unsuccessfully contested Lingiari against veteran Labor MP Warren Snowdon at the 2019 election, said the Senate provided a better platform for her to “effect a real change”.

She also conceded the NT Senate seat was easier to win than a lower house seat.

Ms Price, who leads the Indigenous research program at the Centre for Independent Studies, has argued that tackling soaring rates of domestic violence in Indigenous communities is key to improving broader employment and education outcomes.

Speaking to Sky News on Sunday, Ms Price said on Sunday she wanted to “smash the narrative” that says Indigenous Australians are “constantly victims”.

Liberal and Nationals MPs in the NT are both members of the Country Liberal Party. There are just two NT Senate seats, with one traditionally going to the CLP and the other to Labor since the 1970s.

Alice Springs Mayor Damien Ryan, who recently announced he would not contest the next local council elections, will be the CLP’s candidate for the lower house seat of Lingiari – a long-held Labor seat.

But Mr Snowdon’s retirement means Labor will lose the incumbency factor in the seat. He holds it on a margin of 5.46 per cent.

Labor’s candidate for Lingiari is Northern Land Council chief executive Marion Scrymgour.