Senator Nampijinpa Price talks to Natalie Barr on Sunrise

4 September 2025

Subjects: Criminalising flag burning; flag as national unity vs. division under multiple flags; pro-Australian marches showing public sentiment; rejecting neo-Nazis and extremist groups; condemning rising antisemitism; failures of Albanese to call out extremism; call for unity under one flag and shared Australian pride. 

E&OE……………

NATALIE BARR:
A rejection of Australia and all that it stands for or a simple act of freedom of speech. The debate on the burning of our national flag intensified this week after Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price called on politicians to criminalise it.

[Excerpt]

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:
Things need to change, especially at a time when our nation is facing social cohesion challenges unlike we've seen in generations. The Coalition calls on the Albanese government to enact legislation that criminalises the destruction or desecration of our national flag.

[End excerpt]

NATALIE BARR:
This comes after a weekend of tension across the country where videos emerged of protesters taking a flame to the flag. For more, Senator Nampijinpa Price, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry, joins us live in Canberra. Good morning to you. So, if the flag is a symbol of freedom some would say that includes the freedom to burn it?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:
What really concerns me is the fact that the flag is a symbol of our nation. I find that it is a betrayal to burn our flag. Our soldiers, when we lose them, when our diggers pass away, their coffins are draped in the Australian flag, a flag that they fought for our freedoms under. It is desecration. It is the ultimate disrespect to our nation. And I would like to see the Albanese Government put in legislation to make it illegal to burn our national emblem.

NATALIE BARR:
Your proposal was voted down by the Greens and Labor yesterday. What do you think most Australians think about this?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:
I think most Australians demonstrated over the weekend how they feel about our country and about our flag. I think in recent times a lot of Australians have been vilified, and the suggestion is that they are somehow racist if they take pride in who we are as a country and in our flag that represents us as a country. I find that our Prime Minister standing in front of three flags divides us. Divides us into three people when we are one people, we are the Australian people, and we need to take that back and we need to reinstate pride in who we are as a country because we are a remarkable country that should be celebrated and not denigrated.

NATALIE BARR:
Okay, so if neo-Nazis are marching through the street, some would say in the name of hate, should they be able to wave the flag in the name of hate?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:
Absolutely not, not in the name of hate, no way. I utterly condemn those who call themselves neo-Nazis, who are basically inciting hate in our country, just as much as I condemn those who wave flags that belong to terrorist groups, such as Hamas or ISIS, or carry the photo of the Iranian dictator. There is no room in this country for that level of extremism which is occurring on both sides and should be utterly condemned on both sides.

This is what has lent itself to the rise in antisemitism in our country and our Jewish Australians should feel absolutely safe, but they do not in these current circumstances, this has stemmed from the Prime Minister failing to call out those protests on the steps of the Opera House after October 7^th.

NATALIE BARR
After October 7. Correct. So, are you saying there is a groundswell of hatred in this country that is brewing? What do you want the government to do? What do you think Anthony Albanese should do?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE:
Well, Anthony Albanese needs to stand in front of one flag and one flag only. That represents the entirety of the Australian people. He is the leader of this country. When you look at us in a global setting, we look confused.

We look as if we are three people. He needs to start by stating that we should be proud to call ourselves Australians, proud of our history, whether we are first Australians, whether we have convict heritage, which I certainly am proud of both sides of my heritage. Whether we come from a migrant background, which of course my husband has. My children would not be who they are today without all of those elements of what it means to be Australian and to celebrate this country.

This is what we don't do enough of, celebrating who we are as a country. That's what our Prime Minister should be pushing more of and standing up for.

NATALIE BARR:
Senator Price, thank you.