Jacinta Price has not apologized. Should she? Well it all started with a pollster’s claim that 85 of Indians in Australia vote Labor, which was without foundation and purely anecdotal at best. This completely vanquished Opposition who visibly panicked. It seems it became a real issue for them when the unverified claim was peddled in discussions and debates on national television, particularly SkyNews Australia.
Jacinta Price, Liberal Senator from the Northern Territory, while appearing on the ABC’s Background Briefing program claimed the federal government had a “focus” on bringing in migrants “from particular countries over others,” specifically singling out the Indian community.
Senator Price suggested that the Labor Party was prioritising people “from particular countries over others” and favored those who were “more Labor leaning” because they would “ultimately support their policies, their views and vote for them.”
When asked if Labor was actively running a migration program to bring in migrants open to the party’s ideas, she replied “absolutely.”
Referring to the Indian community, she said:
“As we have seen… there is a concern with the Indian community… only because there’s been large numbers, and we can see that reflected in the way that the community votes for Labor at the same time.”
Clealy Senator Price believed the falsehood of the poll suggesting 85% of those with Indian ancestry have voted for Labor at the last election.
The focus should have been on verifying the claim in their offices. No one did. We have seen countless times, when questioned about polls, every politician claims not to believe in them. Here was the evidence, everyone did.
All the Senator was implying was that Labor’s migration program was linked to political voting considerations. It was Labor to take up an issue with the claim, blamed of running a corrupt migration program.
But politics is also about optics, particularly in the age of social media. Rather than restoration of their own prestige (whatever they have, if any), they very cleverly turned it around to show to the Indian community both here and back in India that theirs was the party in Australia who liked them and preferred them over others. They said the Liberals (with Senator Price’s comments) have insulted the Indian community and should apologize to them.
When Sally Sara on ABC Radio National Breakfast asked Prime Minister, he clearly enjoyed the opportunity. An excerpt:
SARA: Prime Minister, Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has walked back comments about Indian migrants, but hasn’t apologised. Should she apologise, in your view?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, people in the Indian community are hurting. And it is important to make clear my position, which is that the Indian Australian community has made our nation stronger. They contribute to our economy, our communities. They’re a vital part of modern Australia. And I just say to the Indian community: you’re valued, you’re welcome here, you make our country stronger by being here. And thank you for everything that you do to make Australia a better place. We’re focused on delivering for people. The Coalition seem to be just focused on themselves. The comments are not true that the Senator made and of course she should apologise for the hurt that has been caused and her own colleagues are saying that. But even more importantly, leaders in the community are asking for that as well.
SARA: Should the Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, apologise on behalf of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price?
PRIME MINISTER: Oh, look, that’s a decision for Sussan Ley. My job is to be Prime Minister of the country, to try and bring people together, to promote social cohesion, to reject division and people who seek to divide the country do it a disservice. The job of people in public office is to bring people together and that is what I’ll be focused on. And I’ll be fighting for Australia’s national interests. I’ll leave the Coalition to fight themselves.
Sussan Ley and her Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs Paul Scarr took time of their weekend break to visit Little India in Sydney’s Harris Park. This was done in an exercise to assuage any hurt that the Indian community might have suffered.
On Sunday, on ABC’s Insiders, Sussan Ley, practically said everything else but for using the word apology.
Liberal MP Julian Leeser unreservedly apologized to Indian Australians for Price’s comments, describing them as “frankly disgusting” and emphasizing the valuable contribution of the Indian community to Australia.
The controversy has caused significant backlash within the Liberal Party and wider community, with some party members urging a formal apology to repair relations with Indian Australians.
Later, Price walked back her remarks saying Australia “maintains a longstanding and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy” but still refused to apologize, saying she “doesn’t believe she has anything to apologise about” and that the comments were spurred by the line of questioning she received from the interviewer