Senator Nampijinpa Price talks to Luke Grant, 2GB

2 May 2026

Subjects: Kumanjayi Granites

E&OE……………

LUKE GRANT:

I'm delighted to welcome Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to the program. Thank you, Senator, so much for your time, and please accept my deep and sincere condolences.

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Thank you, Luke, and thank you to all those Australians out there who have reached out and expressed their condolences and their concern. This case has really shocked a nation. It's shocked Alice Springs to its absolute core because in a place like Alice Springs, skin colour doesn't matter. Everybody lives the day-to-day issues that we are faced with as a community. There is so much frustration in a place like Alice Springs because of the nonsense that we've been gripped with, the division around our country, the shallow wokeness, the arguments and ridiculousness that has gone on for years has really frustrated locals because locals just want to address issues head on, honestly and without highlighting racial differences. We are just saying look after, especially our vulnerable women and children. These are vulnerable Australian women and children, nothing more, nothing less.

LUKE GRANT:

You've been talking about this for many, many years. And you get the occasional interest from members of the media who want to report this. But then we move on to the next thing, to our eternal shame. And that's exactly what it is. You called for inquiries for years and years. And in the politics, given the numbers, they don't succeed, and that's to the eternal shame of those who sit with a vote and vote against it. And you know it's not new, the question of “if not now, when” — you must, with the passion, the sincerity, with the engagement you have with this issue, you must be sick to the stomach every time you hear of another young person injured or even worse — are you?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

I am absolutely sick to my stomach, because as horrific as the recent events and the loss of life from this baby girl, these issues have been long-standing. I know of so many circumstances of little children who have been sexually abused or have been in violent households, women whose lives have been destroyed by perpetrators. I've raised these issues over and over and over again, you know, there are people out there who get so much attention like Grace Tame. I hate to say it, but white feminist women who demand all this attention — can get it. The minute someone like me raises issues around, you know, the sanctity of Aboriginal children, the safety of Aboriginal children, I mean, I get death threats. I get death threats. I get told, you know, there's a leader in Alice Springs who has called — when I delivered, for the first time, I suppose I mentioned these issues on a national platform — I was told I was an oxygen thief by this particular man and this man has responsibility over town camps and has done for a very long time. There is federal funding that is poured into this organisation and the town camps still remain as they are and the town camps are places that are hellholes that my family have died in over and over again because of alcohol-related violence. I have literally helped to pick up my own aunt's body and put it in a body bag in a town camp.

LUKE GRANT:

Oh my god.

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

I've had to rescue my little cousin when he was an eight-month-old baby. You know, I was about 14 years old at this time because there was violence that had broken out in that town camp and I held him in my arms for the rest of the night in my bed to comfort him. He lost both his parents in town camps because of either alcohol-related health issues or crime. His mother was stabbed to death in a town camp by women. I mean, you know, it's like people just don't believe you and there's the issue of girls being promised and arranged marriages and I've been questioned. I've been questioned by Fairfax journalists, you know, whether I'm actually stating the truth. They've made journeys out to places like Yuendumu and heard from people who would rather shut me down and shut me up. Some of those people are scared themselves because their lives are being threatened like my aunt's or people who just hate me and wish that I would stop talking about this because, I don't know, they're more concerned about stigmatisation of our men than they are safety and protection of our most vulnerable children and women. So there's always these accusations that swirl around from left-wing media that I don't know what they expect from me. All I want to do is plainly speak, put the truth out there. You know, as a Senator, I actually thought that I could begin to make a difference by putting forward whether it's motions in the Senate calling for Royal Commissions into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children, and the pushback is huge. The excuses from Labor, from the Greens, from the Teals, I just find it disgraceful and they are part of the problem, they are a part of why these issues persist. You know, the standard you walk past is the standard you maintain.

LUKE GRANT:

Oh, how true is that? How true, how true is that? And you know what, Jacinta, if someone like me pretended that I knew what was going on in a community that I've never been to, I'd be rightly called out. But because it's you, a conservative woman who actually knows stuff and who people respect and listen to, that's the problem. And sadly it always comes back to politics. It's so bloody annoying. I just get — anyway, you live with it. And still, you live with it, but you come back and go again. And that's why people love you, the way that they love you and respect you, and the way they respect you. Do we — have we now reached a point, Senator, where the town camps have to be dismantled and a better way must be found?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Well, these are the conversations that we need to start having because they are concentrations of high-risk areas where we know there's violence, where we know they're supposed to be alcohol-free on paper. The truth is, they're not. Where we know sexual abuse takes place. There's no maintenance. There is no upkeep. There are itinerants — you know, people come and go from these places. People who have got criminal histories come and go from these places. You know, these conversations, we need to start having these conversations because I know that if it was somewhere like Sydney, there was a concentration of this kind of behaviour going on, places like this would be dispersed. They'd be razed to the ground, and something more acceptable would be built there. People would be expected to live amongst the population. People would be expected to take care of their children better, send them to school, get some employment. But we tolerate, we tolerate in our society, we are so tolerant that we tolerate these conditions. In Australia in 2026, that leads to horrific circumstances for our most marginalised, and this is the thing I've always said, we have to be taking care of people on the basis of need, not race, because there are people who tick that Indigenous box in this country, because there are benefits to ticking that box and their lives are no different to an everyday average Australian trying to get by. In the cities, there are plenty of services available, there is plenty of attention given to many of these issues, but in remote places in this country, it's out of sight, it's out of mind and it's largely ignored. We need to start having difficult conversations about how we change these conditions and stop being hands off because of the race of people who are Australian citizens and stop being precious about being culturally sensitive. That's just an excuse to allow this behaviour to continue to occur. It's about protecting innocent children fundamentally at the centre of all of this, and vulnerable women.

LUKE GRANT:

And the other thing going back to what you were saying about it just happened in one of the larger capital cities, you'd be constantly visited by a Prime Minister, it wouldn't be a pit stop on the way to the tennis. A lot of people have raised the amount of dollars spent and it's, you know, in the billions. Now, you're not going to get a perfect outcome for every dollar you spend, but at a minimum you should be able to keep five-year-old girls safe. I feel sure that there'll be a government announcement about more money. And more money might be something, I don't know, but it's got to be spent more effectively. Is that a fair comment? 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

There is no doubt at all this government likes to throw money at situations thinking that by appearing, you know, it makes them appear as though they're doing something when they're actually not doing anything because under this government, Closing the Gap targets are going backwards at a rate of knots. And you know that the Minister can stand up and sound all calm and collected and caring about the situation, but they have done nothing and they have ignored it. My repeated calls and motions to the Senate to hold inquiries into the level of funding being spent in Indigenous organisations, the governance of, you know, statutory authorities, and how we need to improve them so that we don't have people with violent histories in leadership positions, because that tells victims that you're not important, but this man here beating his chest is more important than you. These are all issues that I have raised in the Senate that this government have completely and utterly ignored. You know, where environments remain unsafe and vulnerable people are exposed to harm, accountability is unavoidable. So no, we shouldn't just be throwing out money. We need to ensure accountability, which is lacking when it comes to Indigenous affairs. A lot of organisations can self-audit, they can self-assess, and say we are demonstrating to those providing the funds when clearly, evidently, what's happening on the ground says otherwise.

LUKE GRANT:

Again, I'm so sorry, lots of love, thank you for speaking out, good on you. I don't know where you get this strength from, but you're a remarkable Australian, that's for sure. My best wishes. Thanks, Senator.

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:

Thank you, Luke.

[Ends]