Senator Nampijinpa Price talks with Chris Kenny, News24

5 August 2026

Subjects: Widow tax; Tony Burke; migration policy; Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

E&OE……………

CHRIS KENNY:

Let's go live to Alice Springs now and catch up with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. She's the Shadow Small Business Minister. Great to catch up with you, Jacinta. First up, in your portfolio area, the Labor government now putting out there the revisions to its budget tax measures, getting rid of things like the widow tax and discretionary trust taxes, supposedly fixing these unintended consequences of their budget madness. So what's your response? Had a look at it yet?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Look, Chris, this is demonstrative of a government, a pigheaded government, that decides to create policy that hasn't been well thought through, where consultation hasn't taken place and they've taken a ham-fisted approach to just ram it through. They had every opportunity at the last sitting week that we had in Canberra, in parliament, to do the right thing — to not ram these policies, this legislation through and to fix the issues of widow tax, you know, but they've been warned, they've been warned. We already told them of the consequences of what it might mean to those in these vulnerable situations, to those in domestic violence situations and how they would be impacted by these policies. But they didn't listen because they didn't want to listen because they obviously know what's best and now they are scrambling to do a patch-up job and they're patting themselves on the back for it at the same time as if to say, well, we knew this was going to be the case. If they knew, why do it in the first place? This is not how you should govern a country.

CHRIS KENNY:

Yeah, it's extraordinary. And of course, the real estate market is in turmoil and the latest projections suggest that it is going to get a lot worse. I want to get you on immigration as well, because obviously the Coalition has toughened up its immigration policies under Angus Taylor. One Nation have been ringing the alarm bells about immigration for some time. Labor admits that its immigration levels have been too high. And Tony Burke was going to announce a new policy tomorrow, but he's backed out of it. So obviously, there are plenty of socialist left members of Cabinet who don't like clamping down on or reducing our immigration intake.

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Well, again, it's those socialist members of their Cabinet that are helping to destroy this country. And this just, again, demonstrates a government that is divided behind closed doors. They're divided. They don't know what they want to press forward with or not. You know, how embarrassing that Tony Burke as the minister had to pull out of his National Press Club address at the last minute. As it is right now, there were more than 2.8 million temporary visa holders since the end of June. We know that immigration is having a detrimental impact on our country, on our infrastructure, on our services, and this government has created that problem to the point where it is now. So it is no wonder once more they're scrambling to try and find solutions and come up with the right solutions. But evidently, there are those that want to continue down the path that we're currently going down. I mean, it's why we've warned them. As a Coalition, we've warned them. It's why we will ensure that we will bring about immigration that is sustainable for our country. That speaks to the fact that we need those coming to our country who are going to fill the right — the appropriate — gaps in terms of the skills that we need where there are shortages. But we must also make sure that places like regional Australia and the Northern Territory don't miss out on those with the skills that we need in this country. But this government, they're realising all their chickens are coming home to roost right now, and this is so evident before us.

CHRIS KENNY:

Yeah, and related to all that is social cohesion. I just want to get your thoughts on what we've seen at the Bondi Royal Commission over the past couple of days. I highlighted this last night with Alex Ryvchin, but you've got the situation where lawyers for the Palestinian protesters are actually questioning Jewish Australians about the policies of the Israeli government in Gaza, almost as if they're trying to justify the horrific protest at the Opera House and the sorts of things we've seen since. Have a listen to Dominic Toomey, one of these lawyers.

[CLIP STARTS]

DOMINIC TOOMEY SC:

I want to suggest to you that you have seen nothing that has emanated from the organisers of the rally, namely the Palestine Action Group, which would suggest in any way that the rally was being convened to celebrate those despicable attacks.

[CLIP ENDS]

CHRIS KENNY:

Now, that's another point which I'll come to in a moment, but first up where they're interrogating the Jewish people about the policies in the Middle East, how could that possibly justify the hatred we've seen on the streets here?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Yeah, look, it's disgusting. I mean, David Ossip was right to bring the inquiry back to what its central purpose was, which is about ensuring that it is about the rise of antisemitism, that we're hearing from witnesses — the Jewish witnesses in our communities — that are now fearful to send their own children to school in their uniforms, for crying out loud. This is fundamentally what it is about. This is not about those opportunists making this a running commentary on, you know, a foreign military or a conflict taking place in the Middle East or the history of the Middle East. This is not what this is about. This is about antisemitism in our country, in Australia, and the fact that it needs to be taken away. It needs to be brought to the surface, to the light, and the right thing needs to be done for the Jewish community in our country — not provide an opportunity for these activist types to attempt to make excuses for the horrible behaviour which occurred two days after the October 7 attacks.

CHRIS KENNY:

And for Dominic Toomey there to suggest that there's no evidence there was any sense of celebration — that was the whole tone of everything about that protest at the Opera House. It was celebrating the slaughter of Israelis and threatening Jews in Australia. And you only had to go to the previous night with Sheikh Dadoun in Lakemba saying this was a night of victory, a night of triumph. He was most overtly celebrating. So they're living in an alternative universe. And I wonder how the Royal Commissioner could allow her commission to be a place to amplify this sort of hatred.

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Precisely right, Chris. I mean, the Royal Commission is not there to allow for the activist class to gaslight Jewish people in this country to utilise the Royal Commission for this purpose at all. We've had enough of it. We've got a gutful of it. It cannot continue. And you're absolutely right, it shouldn't be used in this particular forum, in this particular way. And as I said, the Jewish people of our country deserve a hell of a lot more than this level of conduct. That is blatant antisemitism, as far as I'm concerned, and there is no place for it in our country.

CHRIS KENNY:

Thanks for joining us, Jacinta. I appreciate it. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, joining us live from Alice Springs.

[ENDS]