Senator Nampijinpa Price talks with Chris Kenny, Sky News

7 July 2026

Subjects: China; economy; housing; Prime Minister’s podcast comments.

E&OE……………

CHRIS KENNY:

Let's now catch up with the Shadow Minister for Small Business, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who joins us from Darwin. Good to speak to you, Jacinta. I want to just start off with… I know you've been in the Northern Territory focusing on housing today. I'll come back to that in a moment. But were you pleased to hear the Prime Minister deliberately calling out China for its provocative action in the South Pacific? 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Look, it's probably about time that our Prime Minister has called out the CCP on their provocative conduct within the South Pacific and, you know, this follows other events that we know that have taken place previously, circumnavigating our own country being one of those incidents. But we obviously support and want peace in the region. It demonstrates why our relationships with our neighbours in the Pacific are so important and I'm pleased that finally the Prime Minister has called out this behaviour. We just don't need this hanging over our heads or over the heads of our neighbours. 

CHRIS KENNY:

Yeah, he was so pathetic in those earlier instances. Even when the Chinese Navy circumnavigated our country, he didn't call that provocative, which it obviously was. So someone's told him he needs to show a bit of spine. So that's good to see. Let's get back to the economy. That Deloitte report must have concerned you. It's basically formalising what a lot of commentators have been worried about, economic commentators, that our growth trajectory in this country is abysmal and things are going to get a lot tougher before they get better. 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 

Well, that's precisely right. And that's why we keep saying this government needs to get its spending under control. And it needs to stop taxing at every single opportunity that they get. It's why they need to start supporting small businesses. And today, we visited the Housing Industry Association, myself and Angus Taylor, we heard from apprentices themselves and we heard a lot of the concerns around housing, the fact that apprentices have dropped nationally by 7% across the country and that this government is not about investing in small businesses. Not investing in apprentices and tradies effectively and builders who are supposed to be building homes for Australians and they wonder why they're not reaching their building targets when they're simply not doing that, and creating a level of uncertainty for small business so that they can invest back in their businesses, that they employ apprentices and that they effectively can keep the economy going and keep the economy going strong and that we can keep investment going in our country to do just that. They're failing on many fronts. 

CHRIS KENNY:

This Deloitte assessment, these types of companies don't like to be directly critical of government. They always try and be very careful about that. But when you read between the lines, it's saying that the problem is a lack of investment, a lack of productivity. Just at this time, we've got a government that is increasing taxes on investment and that is increasing government involvement in the economy. It's doing all the things it shouldn't be doing if it wants to free up this country, this economy, and encourage investment. 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

That's precisely right. I mean, it is investing in the public sector, but it's not investing in the private sector. And, you know, and as I said, small businesses, when they are looking at, well, now we're going to have to restructure, now, we're gonna have to spend money on accountants and lawyers, they don't get the opportunity to then spend that money back into their businesses to grow their businesses, to employ more people, to take on more apprentices. And this level of uncertainty just scares people away. You know, they need certainty so that they can grow, so that they can continue to invest. I mean, when you've got small businesses talking about, well, you know, we're now looking at taking... We're thinking of taking our business overseas to places like Singapore, to places like New Zealand and even the Middle East or the US. Where they know they're not being taxed to the hilt, where, one day when they do pass away, they are not going to be taxed once they've died and that their children or their families can be secure in knowing that they can either continue on in the business that the family had started or the investments that they need after the fact, after they've lost their loved ones so they can continue to live and pay their bills, if you like. It's just a disgraceful way in which this Albanese government is running this country, propping up the public sector and building that and making more Australians dependent on them and not giving a care in the world for the private sector. 

CHRIS KENNY:

It is so idiotic. The country needs investment and it needs more housing so they increase taxes on both those areas and expect the opposite result. It is bizarre. Before I let you go, Jacinta, I want to get your thoughts on the Prime Minister and his venture into podcasting and his comments the other day about Kylie Minogue. 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 

Look, I think it's utterly disgraceful that you have got the Prime Minister, the highest office in the country, sexually objectifying a very well-known pop singer of our own, a woman. She's a pop icon of our country and she's known globally, but she is also a woman that should not be objectified. And what kind of message does that send to women and to young girls in our own country that your own Prime Minister can discuss you in the most crass, misogynistic terms and expect to get away with that kind of behaviour. Coming from this Labor government who have in the past attacked, obviously, the Coalition for the slightest, what they think are inferences. But in this case, he's just become completely arrogant, so blatant, so full of hubris, to the point that he can make such crass — I mean, it's insulting — not only to Kylie Minogue, but to his own wife, but to women right around this country that expect a hell of a lot better from the highest office in the country, and I think he needs to get on the television like he did during the fuel crisis, so during prime time and apologise to all women and all girls in this country.  

CHRIS KENNY:

Jacinta, thanks for joining us live from Darwin there, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.

[ENDS]