Price to run for Coalition in next federal election

Jacinta Price will bid to enter federal politics at the next election by running for the Coalition in an outback NT seat.

Jacinta Price will run for the Coalition in the next federal election. Picture: Chloe Elrich

Jacinta Price will bid to enter federal politics at the next election by nominating for the Coalition in an outback seat in the Northern Territory.

She will campaign on a platform of changing Aboriginal land rights, fighting domestic violence and cutting youth crime.

Ms Price, the daughter of a Warlpiri woman and a non-Aboriginal man, today confirmed she would seek preselection by the Country Liberal Party to campaign for Lingiari, a seat covering all of the Territory outside Darwin held by Labor’s Warren Snowdon.

Ms Price, who recently drew national headlines for her outspoken opposition to moving the date of Australia Day, said that while her views hadn’t changed, there were many more important issues affecting the Territory.

“I think that the Aboriginal Land Rights Act needs to be reviewed, definitely,’’ she said.

“What’s the point in handing Aboriginal people their land back if they can’t even use it to generate their own income from it — not passive welfare through a royalty system but actual enterprise and business income through creating jobs?

“This idea of passive royalty income has gone too far now. It’s another form of welfare; it’s not encouraging people to enter employment.”

Ms Price said she was open to the idea that land councils — federal bureaucracies administering land rights — might be “no longer required” or that they could be reformed.

“I would be looking to review how land councils operate, not necessarily standing against them. But I think that the whole system of land rights and land councils needs reviewing to see what’s working and what’s not,” she said.

Jacinta Price as an activist Alice Springs town councillor. Picture: Jeff Tan

Ms Price’s mother, Bess Price, a Warlpiri woman and a former Northern Territory government minister, agreed with her daughter’s assessment.

“They (constituents) don’t care about Australia Day, but the land councils are a big issue,” Bess Price said. “There’s issues that Aboriginal people are not happy about.”

Mr Snowdon, who has represented the area for most of the past three decades, is known as a land rights stalwart and strong supporter of land councils, setting up a bitter battle over the future of Aboriginal economic policy if, as is tipped by some Labor figures, he runs again.

In the lead-up to the 2013 federal election, the then opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Nigel Scullion pledged to “definitely fight the land councils hard” and accused them of thinking their power to say “no” was “limitless”.

“If the land councils aren’t prepared to do something that I think is quite reasonable, then I think it’s quite reasonable that the minister use (executive) power to make that happen. I will definitely fight the land councils hard,” Senator Scullion said at the time.

In government as the Indigenous Affairs Minister, Senator Scullion brought forward changes that would have allowed land council powers to be divested to community organisations. But those changes were blocked in the Senate.

Critics have said Senator Scullion miscalculated by assuming a wave of community support would help push the changes through but stumbled when that failed to materialise.

Bess Price agrees with her daughter that land rights are a big issue in Northern Territory. Picture: Elise Derwin

Ms Price said that in her judgment, community unhappiness about the operation of land rights and the behaviour land councils had only grown since that time.

“I think that the feeling is definitely stronger now ... I think that there’s definitely a sense, a feeling among a lot of Aboriginal people who don’t feel that they have enough control over their land,” she said.

“Land councils have just become another bureaucracy sitting atop Aboriginal people, controlling their money and controlling their land.

“There’s a groundswell of people who want to take (back) control, who want to do it for themselves, and I’m prepared to support them to do that.”

Ms Price’s father, Dave Price, said he was proud of his daughter’s “courageous stand” on a range of controversial but important issues. But he also voiced fears for her safety, saying that she already suffered frequent threats and harassment, particularly online.

“There will be people that will threaten to kill her; we’re used to that. There will be people that vilify her in the most foul terms; we’re used to that. But there will be other people that support her,” Mr Price said.

He rejected descriptions of his daughter as “conservative”, saying she was more of a pragmatist.

CLP director Brad Vermeer said nominations for preselection had opened on Saturday and would remain open until early March.

“If someone of the calibre (of Ms Price) were to nominate, we would welcome it. I think she’s got a lot to offer,” Mr Vermeer said.

The party’s central council will make the final decision in April.