Yuendumu death, reality of Indigenous communities needs to be ‘confronted’: Jacinta Price

Those who don’t like to hear about life in remote Indigenous communities are ‘part of the problem’, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa at the Hyatt Hotel In Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says those who don’t like to hear about life in remote Indigenous communities such as Yuendumu, where her nephew Kumanjayi Walker was shot by NT police, are “part of the problem”.

The outspoken No campaigner said more should have been done to help Mr Walker when he was alive, including by her own family, and that the realities facing Indigenous communities needed to be confronted to “fix problems on the ground”.

Mr Walker, a 19-year-old Warlpiri man, was shot by Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe while he was trying to arrest him in the remote community of Yuendumu, about 300km from Alice Springs, on November 9, 2019. Mr Walker stabbed Contable Rolfe with scissors before the first shot was fired.

Senator Price, speaking at The Australian’s second Great Voice Debate event on Thursday night in Canberra, said her own niece had been sexually abused while living in the same household as Mr Walker.

She was asked about her reaction to The Australian’s reporting on the bungled arrest and subsequent trial, which saw Constable Rolfe found not guilty of Mr Walker’s murder by a NT Supreme Court.

Zachary Rolfe after being found not guilty of murder. Picture: Amanda Parkinson

“As far as I’m concerned, The Australian just published the facts and … the circumstances within Yuendumu surrounding the death of my nephew,” she said.

“The fact that one of my nieces … was sexually abused in the same household as him by her own father, this is a reality.

“You only reported on the tip of the iceberg as to what goes on in places like Yuendumu, and those who don’t like to hear it are part of the problem.”

Senator Price said during the candid interview that her own family should have been more responsible for the fate of Mr Walker, whose death and the subsequent trial of Constable Rolfe made national headlines.

“In terms of my nephew’s case, more should have been done prior to him ending up in the circumstances that he ended up in our family,” she said.

“My family should have been far more responsible in his life when he was alive, as well as his cousin, who was a victim of rape in the same household that he lived in.

“These are the issues that we need to confront if we’re going to fix the problems on the ground. And that’s just the reality of it.”