Jacinta Nampijinpa Price backs Michalia Cash’s call on flags and welcome to country

NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has thrown her support behind a West Australian Liberal motion to strip welcome to country ceremonies of official status.

Senators Michaelia Cash and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price are both opposed to the Liberal policy on flags and welcome to country ceremonies. Picture: AAP

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Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has thrown her support behind a West Australian Liberal motion to strip welcome to country ceremonies of official status, saying the symbolism is no longer unifying and amounts to “cultural ­reinvention”.

After finding herself at the centre of a fiery row in the Senate on Thursday night during a debate about welcomes to country, Senator Nampijinpa Price on Friday endorsed the motion put forward by the Liberal Party of WA’s policy committee and backed by the Liberals’ leader in the Senate, Michaelia Cash, that described the ceremony as “tokenistic and divisive”.

“I certainly support Michaelia’s position on it and I think more broadly the Australian people want to see us being unified as a country without singling out a group of Australians for a particular reason,” Senator Price told The Australian.

“As an Aboriginal person ­myself I don’t want to be treated differently.“

The motion regarding welcome to country ceremonies, as well as a motion seeking to recognise only the national, state and territory and armed forces flags, will be considered at Saturday’s meeting of the WA Liberals’ state council. Both motions were explicitly directed at the federal ­opposition.

Another motion – advanced by Andrew Hastie’s Canning division – is calling on the federal party to abandon net zero targets. All three motions are expected to pass comfortably.

Senator Price said the outcome of the 2023 voice referendum showed that most Australians “were not supportive of elevating symbolic gestures”.

“After the result of the referendum I think Australians have clearly demonstrated that they don’t feel as though this sort of conduct is something that is unifying or sort of a representation of all that who we are,” she said.

The motions have created further headaches for Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, who has been trying to steer the Liberal Party away from “culture war” issues. Senator Price was originally poised to run for the deputy leadership in the wake of the May election, but bowed out after Angus Taylor lost to Ms Ley.

Her comments followed an angry exchange in the Senate on Thursday, after the leader of the government in the Senate, Penny Wong, pushed back on Senator Price over her views on welcome to country ceremonies.

In a debate over the decision of One Nation senators to turn their backs on the acknowledgement of country at the start of parliament, Senator Price said she was “sick to death” of Indigenous heritage being “objectified”.

Senator Wong rebuked One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and urged Senator Price to heed the more conciliatory approach of Liberal deputy leader Sussan Ley, who has expressed support for continuing the symbolism.

“Decency and respect cost us nothing, but they go a long way to building a sense of unity,” Senator Wong said.

That prompted a response from Senator Cash, who told Senator Wong: “Don’t ever come into this place again and pontificate to us like you’ve just done.”

Senator Price told The Australian Senator Wong had “basically patronisingly disregarded my views as an Aboriginal woman”.

“So therefore, the acknowledgments and the respect are lip service. They are not meaningful words because they don’t agree with conservative Aboriginal women when it comes to our views. Only in their view of how they think Aboriginal people should act and behave – and that to me is what racism truly is,” Senator Price said.

She said the acknowledgement of country at the beginning of the senate was a recent introduction that warranted debate.

“I’m over Aboriginal Australians and this concept of culture all being utilised for political point scoring without recognising that cultural reinvention is actually diminishing traditional culture and there is no teaching or understanding of traditional culture,” Senator Price said.

While the WA motions are expected to attract strong support from the lay party, some Liberal MPs questioned how the positions would help the party turn around its fortunes and win back seats lost to Labor and the teals in the past two federal elections.

Peter Dutton promised not to stand in front of the Indigenous flags during an election campaign that ended in a record-breaking defeat, while former WA Liberal Party leader Libby Mettam adopted the same position in the lead-up to the party’s latest dismal result in the west earlier this year.

Her replacement, Basil Zempilas, adopted a position on the flag issue similar to that later taken by Ms Ley after she became leader.

“I’ve said many times that, as the Lord Mayor of the city of Perth, I have stood proudly in front of the Aboriginal flag, the Australian flag, and the Torres Strait Islander flag. I would do that anywhere, anytime,” Mr Zempilas said. “But I’ve also said Peter Dutton is right. There is only one Australian flag.”

The WA flag and welcome to country motions were also backed by prominent Indigenous No campaigner and former Liberal candidate Warren Mundine, who said they should be adopted by every state Liberal division.

Warren Mundine backs welcome to country ceremonies but says they are being overused. Picture Thomas Lisson

Mr Mundine, who opposed the voice but supports a treaty for Indigenous advancement, said the acknowledgment had lost its meaning and should be reserved for appropriate occasions such as citizenship ceremonies or major international events.