In the wake of the Liberal Party’s bruising defeat in the May 2025 federal election, where Anthony Albanese’s Labor secured a decisive second term amid a Liberal collapse, the party desperately sought fresh blood to rebuild. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s defection from the Nationals to the Liberals in early May seemed, at first glance, like a bold move. As a prominent Indigenous senator and vocal conservative, Price brought star power and a direct line to right-wing voters disillusioned by the Coalition’s split. Yet, four months on, her integration has exposed fissures, sparking internal strife and raising questions about whether she’s an asset or a liability. Far from unifying the party, Price’s undisciplined style, controversial alignments, and far-right leanings risk dragging the Liberals further into electoral irrelevance.
Price’s defection was mired in controversy from the start. Nationals figures like Matt Canavan lambasted it as “disloyal,” while Liberal moderates saw it as a conservative power grab to bolster Angus Taylor’s failed leadership bid. She ultimately didn’t nominate for deputy leader, but the move alienated key allies, including Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie, who accused Liberals of trying to “damage” her party. This internal discord echoes the broader Coalition fracture post-election, where the Liberals’ loss of moderate seats to Teals and Labor highlighted the perils of ideological extremism.
Her recent comments on Indian migration exemplify the grief she’s caused. In a September 2025 ABC interview, Price falsely claimed Labor was prioritising Indian migrants to boost its vote, igniting backlash from the Indian Australian community and demands for an apology. Liberal powerbroker Alex Hawke publicly urged her to retract, citing “real damage” to both sides, only for Price to accuse him of “cowardly and inappropriate” conduct toward her staff. This public spat not only embarrassed the party but highlighted Price’s combative streak, which even Sky News commentators called a “spectacular own goal.” One Liberal MP described it as a “head-in-hand moment,” underscoring how her remarks alienated a key demographic in multicultural seats the party needs to reclaim.
Adding to the tension, Price appears to have annoyed party leader Sussan Ley, who has been forced to defend her recruit amid multiple rows, including a flag-wearing stunt in the Senate. Ley, navigating a party reeling from its worst defeat in decades, can’t afford distractions that paint the Liberals as out of touch. Price’s close alignment with Pauline Hanson – voting together in 91% of divisions since 2022 and defending One Nation against “anti-Australian” labels – further fuels concerns. The pair’s joint antics, like draping Australian flags in parliament, draw parallels to Hanson’s divisive politics, which have long repelled moderate voters.
Price’s admiration for Donald Trump compounds the issue. Her April 2025 pledge to “make Australia great again,” coupled with an unearthed photo of her in a MAGA hat, invited comparisons to Trump’s polarising style. While she denied obsession with the U.S. leader, the echo alienated centrists, especially as Trump’s influence loomed over global politics during Australia’s election. This rightward tilt mirrors the Liberals’ 2025 missteps, where hardline stances on migration and culture wars cost them urban seats, proving the extreme right is electoral poison.
Ultimately, Price’s defection risks entrenching the Liberals in a conservative echo chamber, far from the broad appeal needed for recovery. Her undisciplined outbursts and alliances may energise the base but repel the moderates and migrants essential for future wins. As one insider noted, it’s a “hostile takeover” that could spark civil war. For a party already fractured, embracing such volatility isn’t renewal – it’s a recipe for prolonged opposition.
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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is just another opportunist aspiring to be an influential politician. In that regard she has a great mentor in Angus Taylor.
With overbearing, privileged and arrogant (along with other assorted scumbags) pollies like Price in the Libs then they are assured of a long, long time on the sidelines.
An embarrassng waste of time, an all round irritation, a small toy politician, Ms. Price fails her roles, her colleagues, us all.
Jacinta Price basked for some months in the success of her campaign to sink the Voice Referendum – high fives all round – perhaps forgetting that she is one of only two Senators in the NT.
What has she actually done for the people of the NT ?
Terry,
NT = Nothing Tangible?
Another brilliant own goal by ‘well done Angus’.The LNP…brimming with fuckwits.
So she got kicked out by them for her inane comments and propensity to divide as she did with the population over the Voice.
She may well have come from a deprived background and the result has been a deterioration to a Mundine mentality.
In the end, look back to her mindset, which involves the seige mindset eventually imposed on the different components of the aboriginal community after centuries of violence and dihonesty from “settler” white people.
A bit of frustration, a bit of paranoia, at at an inability to get thru to the white oligarchy and public the dire straights many indigenous people feel as to exclusion. Like Hanson, a bit of a dud, but maybe deep cultural reasons…
Be careful, ALP. The move from Ley proves that she may more adept at politics than Dutton was.
…………………………
As I write I am just watching the story of a disabled aboriginal man assaulted by police and absolved in court on the charge against of him for maybe hitting back, as if someone in a wheelchair could have done them harm.
Resonances here with the tasering death of the little old lady in Cooma and maybe the thuiggery employed on the young woman with the punched-in eye.
Why will they NOT have the mentality; the sub culture of police changed, to not behave so thuggishly toward ordinary perople.
Price has pointedly refused to apologise for her comments about Australians with Indian heritage and has refused to pledge allegiance or confidence in her leader – I feel a leadership challenge is in the wind.
I read that prior to this blow-up she was to be offered a safe Liberal seat for the House of Reps for the next election as her chances of being re-elected as a CLP Senator in the NT are diminishing rapidly.
I see Ley has kicked Price from the opposition front bench. Needed to be done, but now the RWNJ daggers will be drawn and sharpened in preparation for removing Suss. herself asap.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-10/naus_pricestepdownnc_1009/105759606
It is never a bad thing to “entrenching the Liberals in a conservative echo chamber” preferably at a great depth in the Marianis Trench would be ideal.
However, we now have the opportunity to refine the front runners for the LIARBRAL$ ”leadership” Stakes run in early December 2025.
Naturally:
1) the NameYer Price & Annus Failure (deputy) team will be well received by the membership due to their willingness to stay silent on any topic that may be vaguely important to Australian voters, like prosecuting the Robodebt perpetrators;
2) Tim ”ZION@ZI” Wilson would claim that his membership of the Parliamentary Prayer Room raised the numbers for his candidacy, especially thanks to his political funding by the ZION@ZI supporters of the GAZA GENOCIDE & rebuilding as the GAZA GOLD COAST which would be a Palestinian free zone;
3) Little Jimmy ”never had a proper job” Paterson does media mumbling on behalf of the party, mainly because he is an IPA plant to keep working Australians in poverty while the BILLIONAIRES skim off the enormous profits from exploiting Australian natural resources;
4) then there is Tastie Hastie a former SAS officer retired into politics where his unstinting support for the USA (United States of Apartheid) is expected to continue into any promotion so that Australian sovereignty can be further compromised, and Australian military personnel put in jeopardy as ”willing COALition government mercenaries” in the next American imperialist MAGA misadventure ….. all at the expense of us Australian taxpayers.
Nahhh ….. I think I will vote for a return of several successive LABOR governments in the hope that somewhere in the ranks of the True Believers there are some with memories of the policy courage from the Whitlam era, that dragged Australia into the 20th century in 1972 by defeating an incompetent, self-serving COALition misgovernment.