Sussan Ley had three options to deal with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price when the Liberal leader was putting together her first frontbench in late May.
All carried risks.
The first was to keep Price in the shadow cabinet, which might have curtailed her policy freelancing but also risked alienating Liberal colleagues who considered her undeserving of such a role so soon after defecting from the Nationals.
The second was to relegate her to the backbench, which might have appeased those same Liberals but risked raising the ire of Price, party members and conservative commentators who passionately support her.
The final option was to shift Price to an off-Broadway portfolio in the outer shadow ministry in the hope she would keep her head down, and out of trouble.
Ley picked the third and hoped for – but perhaps never expected – the best.
Within hours of doing so, Price was on Sky News – seemingly her preferred media megaphone – criticising the leader’s decision and claiming some of the frontbench appointments were not based on merit.
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With that swift and pointed public rebuke, the Northern Territory senator made clear that she wouldn’t shy away from the outspokenness that defined her brand of combative rightwing politics.
Those qualities made Price a rare commodity – a conservative political superstar – during the voice to parliament referendum.
It also made her an ever-present danger for Ley as the opposition leader attempted to guide the Liberals back to the political middle ground following the last federal election disaster.
So it has proven three months later.
In one interview last week, conducted just as the Liberals were celebrating a rare political win on aged care, Price demonstrated just how damaging and distracting she could be.
The senator’s suggestion that the Albanese government’s migration program favoured some countries over others to win votes – with specific reference to the Indian community – threatens to inflict far more political damage to the Coalition than, for example, her ill-timed “Make Australia Great Again” rally cry during the May election.
Ley and other senior Liberals quickly denounced Price’s statement and sought to patch up ties with the Indian community – including with a walk-through in Sydney’s Harris Park, known as ‘Little India’. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP
The senator’s initial comments to the ABC were not only factually incorrect (Australia has a non-discriminatory migration program) but deeply hurtful to a large and growing diaspora community that the Liberals cannot afford to alienate if it wants to return to power.
She walked back the remarks within hours, acknowledging the “longstanding and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy” and saying “Suggestions otherwise are a mistake”, adding that she had “sought to highlight issues of uncontrolled mass migration and ruptures to social cohesion”.
But the claims about Indian migrants were not made in a vacuum. They were delivered in the aftermath of nationwide anti-immigration rallies, which organisers promoted, in part, with similarly targeted claims about the same community.
The speed with which Ley and other senior Liberals denounced Price’s statement and sought to patch up ties with the Indian community – including with a walk-through in Sydney’s Harris Park, known as “Little India”, and a roundtable on Monday – demonstrates how alive they are to these potential long-term repercussions.
Ley must also now contain the internal fallout, which has quickly spread from anger and dismay at Price’s original comments to other factional and personal tensions lingering within her partyroom.
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Price might have walked back the initial comments and reiterated support for the Indian community. But she has not explicitly apologised for them, instead since pointing the finger at unspecified “agenda-driven” media reporting that “wrenched” her comments out of context.
On Thursday she was more specific, however. “It was the ABC interviewer who pushed the issue, who brought up the issue of anti-Indian migration,” she said.
She also launched an extraordinary public attack on her Liberal colleague Alex Hawke, accusing him of berating one of her staff members after he called about the remarks – allegations that Hawke denies.
Hawke – a polarising figure internally – is one of Ley’s closest allies and did the numbers for her successful leadership race against Angus Taylor, who recruited Price to run as his deputy. The factional subplot to this unfolding saga is not lost on aghast Liberals watching this all play out.
Then there’s Jane Hume.
The dumped frontbencher was dragged into the saga after being outed as the unnamed female Coalition politician who Hawke allegedly suggested Price could suffer a similar fate to, if she didn’t apologise.
Hume’s comment about “Chinese spies” during the election campaign was blamed for a collapse in the Liberal vote in seats with large Chinese communities.
“I’m still reeling a little bit … I’m not entirely sure what this is all about and why my name needs to be included,” Hume told Sky News.
Hawke – in two separate media interviews on Monday – denied Hume’s dumping was raised during a phone call with Price.
Price had the final word on Monday, appearing (again) on Sky News to explain her version of events. She expressed regret that she wasn’t “clearer” in initial comments.
As for an apology to Indian-Australians? Not quite.
“I have asked our leader if she would ask Alex Hawke to apologise to me for his conduct. I’m a Liberal women and Liberal women need to be able to feel like they’re being supported,” Price said.
Ley faces a long and difficult task to rebuild trust with the Indian community.
Managing Price, and the ongoing risk of another outburst and the political damage it could inflict, might prove just as hard.