A private dinner with Jacinta Price can cost $10,000. This is why

Few people in the Coalition can charge $10,000 a head for a private dinner. The obvious two are Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor. A third has a portfolio nowhere near as significant. She is first-term Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

Price, 43, is a rare character in Australia: a political celebrity. She was promoted to the Coalition frontbench in a single term and is ranked the second-most likeable politician in the country, according to this masthead’s polling. But even in the Nationals, a party with plenty of firebrands, she is a provocateur whose divisive views have sometimes created problems for Dutton.

Now, as the Coalition trails in the polls and seeks circuit breakers to change its fortunes, MPs have been discussing whether Price should be more central to its campaign or steer clear of the cameras.

For a mooted future leader, Price’s public-facing role in the first two weeks of the campaign was minor, like many other opposition ministers. She accompanied Dutton in his press tour of Darwin but said little. Colleagues were questioning why the Coalition wasn’t making better use of a campaigner who dominated the successful No campaign during the Voice referendum.

Then, last Saturday, Price broadcast her desire to “make Australia great again” next to Dutton at a Liberal Party event in Western Australia. With the party at pains to distance its brand from United States President Donald Trump, Price’s allusion to his slogan gave some observers in the party their answer.

Her colleagues’ views are split: backers believe Price’s charisma will add vigour to a campaign that has threatened to go stale. Others are afraid she will alienate middle-ground voters.

Jacinta Price campaigning with Peter Dutton last weekend.Credit: James Brickwood

Price’s political career is still young. Before entering politics as an Alice Springs town councillor in 2015, Price had a stint as a country singer and on a children’s show. She failed to win the seat of Lingiari in 2019 before snaring preselection for the Senate in 2022.

Since entering parliament, she has risen with unusual speed. As recently as last year, colleagues impressed by Price’s prowess were suggesting she should lead the Nationals or move to the lower house, where she could have a greater chance of climbing the leadership ranks. Dutton has already promised her a cabinet spot if he wins government.

Some of her key backers include the Centre for Independent Studies and influential figures in the party’s right-wing establishment, such as Tony Abbott.

“Jacinta is a rock star and welcome everywhere,” the former prime minister says of Price.

Former PMs Tony Abbott (left) and John Howard (right) with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (centre).Credit: James Brickwood

But Price is not welcome everywhere. Indigenous community members protested Price’s appearance at an event in WA last week. Many Indigenous leaders have rejected her as a dangerous force, dismayed by her claims there have been no lasting negative impacts of British colonisation on Aboriginal people.

“I’ll be honest with you, I do not think so,” Price said in 2023, winning her fans in the Liberal and National parties’ conservative base. “A positive impact? Absolutely. I mean, now we have running water, readily available food.”

Price’s mainstream appeal took on a different dimension earlier this year, when she released a memoir and featured on the ABC’s Australian Story. She detailed her experience of domestic violence at the hands of a man she dated between her marriages as a mother-of-three in her early 20s. Then, how she fell into drugs and drinking as she tried to move on from that experience. Price described a cycle of self-loathing and anxiety that led to suicidal thoughts, before a diagnosis of drug-induced depression. She managed to pull herself out.

Most voters who approach Price will talk about that ABC appearance and how it moved them, said one Liberal staffer who has watched her campaign. These are also the stories she has told audiences at fundraising dinners, where the NT senator pulls in wealthier older Liberals from the major cities eager to see her at prices of up to $10,000, according to people familiar with the events. Among regular Liberal branch members, Price can be an even bigger drawcard than Dutton, according to several party sources.

Asked about Price’s fundraising, a spokeswoman for the senator said: “The senator has been open about her experiences … This has resonated with a lot of the public, and as a result she has been received positively by many everyday Australians across the country.”

One Coalition figure who’s seen Price work those rooms said audiences were drawn to her personal story, and they liked hearing a woman from a minority group push back on what they regard as Indigenous affairs orthodoxy. “She’s a performer. She does this in a way that not only makes a great point, but actually moves people,” the source said.

But as she plays to that base, Price can go too far for her own colleagues. Her comments on abortion last year – in which she said pregnancies ended after the first trimester were immoral and late-stage abortions were akin to infanticide – were roundly rejected by female Coalition frontbenchers, and Dutton said the issue had cost the party votes at the Queensland state election.

She had the spotlight for the first time in this election campaign at last weekend’s Perth rally. But her MAGA-like comments forced Dutton to sidestep questions about his party’s ties to Trump. Still, Dutton carefully pushed Price forward, inviting reporters to fire questions at her as she traversed topics from the alleged indoctrination of school children to environmental laws and breastfeeding. Price declared the media – not her – were obsessed with Trump, before photos emerged of her wearing MAGA merchandise at Christmas.

Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price poses in a MAGA cap with her husband Colin Lillie in a photo shared on social media.

The senator penned her defence in The Australian on Thursday after facing a storm of criticism. Price blamed a media pile-on. She did not back down.

“A few days ago, I said that I wanted to see Australia returned to its former glory. And what I meant by that was exactly what I said. That I want the damage to be reversed; that I want our country’s trajectory to begin to point true north again; that we might begin to see some semblance of restoration, redemption – dare I say it, greatness,” she wrote.

But even right-wing Coalition MPs now worry Price does more harm than good for the opposition’s brand. “She’s more a member of the Advance party than the Coalition,” said one MP, who has been a supporter of Price, referencing the combative right-wing campaigning outfit that helped run the No side in the Voice referendum.

It remains to be seen whether Price will ever transfer into a mainstream force inside the Coalition. She had two paths after the Voice win: to take on a portfolio such as social services and ingrain herself in the cut and thrust of daily politics, or remain enmeshed in the ecosystem of conservative think tanks and groups such as Advance that have supported her rapid rise. So far, she has taken the latter.

As polling day nears, Price’s moves will be watched closely by her fans. And equally closely by her opponents, who think she’s helping their chances.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.