Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has faced rebuke from Liberal colleagues after sharing a social media clip from rightwing podcaster Sam Bamford that falsely claimed Labor was “importing” Indian migrants. The incident resurrects a controversy that led to her sacking from the Liberal frontbench by former leader Sussan Ley last year.
Background of the controversy
The Northern Territory senator was removed from Ley’s frontbench in 2023 after suggesting the federal government’s migration program favoured Indians to win Labor votes. Price later clarified that Australia has a non-discriminatory migration program but refused to apologise for hurt caused to Indian Australians. Her refusal to publicly support Ley was the final straw for the then-leader.
Price, who returned to the frontbench under new leader Angus Taylor, shared Bamford’s clip on X earlier this week. In the clip, Bamford responded to an ABC Insiders segment on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Melbourne, where panellists discussed potential electoral benefits for Anthony Albanese from engaging with the Indian diaspora. Bamford said: “We’re just importing Indians for votes. That’s pretty much what the ABC just said.”
False claim and backlash
Bamford’s claim is false because Australia’s immigration program is non-discriminatory and does not select applicants based on nationality, race, gender, or religion. Price’s post remained on her X account as of Wednesday afternoon. A spokesperson for Price told The Australian that the shadow minister for small business wanted to “highlight the ABC’s commentary” and that the repost “was not an endorsement of every comment made by the podcast host.”
Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan condemned the post, stating it was “degrading” to the Indian community to suggest its members vote uniformly. “Those that push this view are seeking to dehumanise people,” he said. “The Liberal party has a proud heritage of supporting multiculturalism.” Another senior Liberal said Price’s views did not “have a home” in the party, noting some colleagues had always felt uneasy about her joining from the Nationals.
Party’s internal concerns
The backlash coincides with a new internal discussion paper admitting multicultural communities have “deep-rooted” concerns with the Liberals, urging the party to “instill message discipline” to prevent opponents from weaponising its positions as “hostile or racist”. Multicultural communities, particularly Chinese Australians, have abandoned the Liberal party in the past two elections, damaging their performance in Sydney and Melbourne seats.
This is the second time Price has associated herself with Bamford, who has 400,000 Instagram followers and is a prominent anti-immigration advocate. In May, she denied agreeing with his suggestion to stop migrants from India, China, Africa, and the Middle East “flooding the country”, after footage showed her nodding during an interview with him.
