Senator Nampijinpa Price talks to Pallavi Jain on The Australia Today

5 September 2025

Subjects: Concerns over migration comments; support for Indian-Australian community; acknowledgement of contributions in business and culture; clarification on mass migration pressures, not specific groups; response to apology calls; Indian-Australian voting diversity; parallels with Indigenous political representation; condemnation of discrimination and extremist rallies; pride in multicultural heritage and family background; recognition of Indian-Australians filling skills gaps; call for unity and ongoing engagement.

E&OE……………

PALLAVI JAIN:
Dear friends, today we have with us Liberal Senator Jacinta Price. Jacinta, thank you so much for joining us today.

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
Thank you for having me. 

PALLAVI JAIN:
Senator Price, I wish we were speaking under different circumstances, but there has been a lot of, I would say, you know, feeling of shock and distress, given your comments, especially because they've come after the anti-mass migration rally that happened, and even in their manifesto, the Indian-Australian community was singled out. I'll briefly let you know why that has been such a positive concern, because basically, the Indian-Australian diaspora is not even the largest, it's the British-born diaspora, which is the largest even today, and Indian-Australians are a hugely successful diaspora. They are among the highest educated, the highest tax paid, overall they are a really successful diaspora and there is a genuine sense of unease in the community, given the events that have happened and when a politician of your stature makes a comment which goes on like that, that's added, that has really been perceived, people are very hurt. So, I would like your comments on this entire issue. 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
Absolutely, and I appreciate being able to have the opportunity to speak to you and to be able to reach out to the Indian community, particularly here in Australia. My comments were never intended to be disparaging towards our Indian community, I absolutely acknowledge the fact that the Indian community has made a massive contribution to Australia more broadly. In my position as not just a Senator but also previous positions as Deputy Mayor and Councillor within my own community, I have worked closely with our Indian community in terms of being able to support visa applications, citizenship, but also there is a wonderful group of businesses in our community. One that I helped support in terms of their application to order liquor license to get their business up and running and also one of my sons was employed by a very good Sikh friend of mine who has a number of businesses in the community and I suppose aside from that my children have Indian heritage themselves and one of my sons actually spent seven weeks on exchange at the Doon School in Dehradun when he was younger. 

I just want to put this out there. I cherish our Indian community. I have absolutely no ill will toward Indian Australians in general. The comments that I made that I was pressed on, I will acknowledge that I should have been far more clear on that and I did clarify those comments around the fact that yes we do have a bipartisan non-discriminatory policy in terms of migration in our country. Those comments I corrected obviously immediately. Of course, when it comes to those marches that occurred, it is absolutely wrong for those to certainly put pressure or give our Indian community a hard time. It is not right. I suppose more clearly my concerns are around the issue of mass migration more broadly. I suppose the concern is for families in Australia, families of many different backgrounds, including those who are part of the migrant community, that if the mass migration issue is such that it applies pressure to our infrastructure, it applies to pressure to housing problems, we know that the government is not keeping up with this in terms of housing Australians full stop. Whether they are long-term Australians, migrants, or recent Australians, we need to get that part right if we are going to continue on a path of, well, certainly steady migration. Right now, there is a concern in terms of mass migration and that relates to everybody in that regard who are coming to the country. 

PALLAVI JAIN: 
Senator Price also, you know, there have been calls by some that, you mentioned that it's probably, it was a mistake, your comments, but some have asked you to apologise. So we would like to ask you that, do you feel that, because many times even in our personal relationships, even with friends or family, we say something, which afterwards we just say sorry, because an apology sometimes goes a long way in healing, in terms of reassuring the community that their leaders are standing by them, so would you like to address that? 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
Oh look as I said, where I wrongly mis-stepped in terms of the comments that I made, I made sure that I corrected, clarified those comments more broadly. As I said, there was nothing I suppose that was disparaging toward the Indian community. I certainly do not want the Indian community to feel like I have any ill will against anybody, obviously. I want to continue to work closely with my friends right across the board and hopefully that can continue as we go forward as well. 

PALLAVI JAIN: 
Yeah, because we did polling on our platform and one of the things that you mentioned was that Indians, you know, that you saw a report that Indians overwhelmingly vote for Labor, but when we did our internal polling on our platform, on votes, they were, we asked our viewers, you know which party would they vote for in the election if we had it today, and 60 percent say they would vote for Liberal, and 33 percent for Labor and I think six percent for Greens, and three for others. You know, so obviously Indian Australians also, like all other Australians, vote on policies and they don't vote as a block. So, I hope you can understand why the community feels the way it feels because people are really feeling very uneasy and they are feeling a sense of uncertainty and unease that harassment against them, violence against them can go up because of the things that have happened and unfortunately your comments around this time have caused a sense of unease. What would you like to see?

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
I can acknowledge this conversation, and perhaps even the way the media have continued to report on the issue has created some unease. I will also acknowledge, certainly, that like the Indigenous community, not all Indian members of the Indian community think the same or vote the same. I can stand corrected in that that was one group of polling that I had made reference to. You have obviously conducted your polling too, which actually I find that quite heartening that there were those that would support certainly the Liberals and the Coalition. Again, I absolutely acknowledge that. For me going forward, I will certainly keep that in mind. I suppose I never really started out these conversations with the concept that all Indian Australians all thought the same or voted as a block because I understand how that feels as somebody coming from the Indigenous community that is viewed in that particular way. Something that I suppose I have also railed against, which is why I stood against the Voice. So, in the Voice referendum it was in part to highlight the fact that no, we do not all think the same, we do not vote the same and I will absolutely acknowledge that it is the case within the Indian community and respect that and also we will take any kind of advice I suppose from the many members from the Indian community in that regard and stand up for should any discrimination be made against any members or any cohort of our community at large. 

I think I have always been an individual who I take great pride in the fact that we are made up of so many different backgrounds. Publicly I have always stated the different makeup of my children's heritage. I have said they come from, they have Mauritian in their background which includes French Creole, Malay, Indian, Chinese, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, English, all of those are the elements and I am incredibly proud of the fact that our nation is built on those elements from the First Peoples to our convict heritage and to our wonderful migrant heritage as well. So that is something I think is absolutely on the record that I have always been very vocal about. 

Any kind of discrimination in any form is unwarranted and it should be condemned and called out. I certainly did do that with regard to the marches, the march that took place this weekend and the marchers that occurred prior to that that were the pro-Palestinian marches, the extremism is not welcome in Australia and certainly singling out of particular communities. Again, I support our Indian community wholeheartedly. 

PALLAVI JAIN: 
Yeah, and just to, you know, speak about mass migration, because as you mentioned, that yes, I mean, one should have discussion and debates about balanced migration and you know, what is good for Australia and you know, it's not about, you know it's not based on race it's a non-discriminatory policy and that's why I just wanted to say you know for the larger audience that you know the reason why you know people of Indian origin are coming to Australia could purely be because they're skilled because they are filling in that gap rather than anything else involved. 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
Look absolutely, and the fact of the matter remains that there are Australians who do not want to do particular jobs and certainly our Indian community does fill those gaps and does a tremendous job in in supporting our communities more broadly. In the community of Alice Springs where I am from we are richer for the fact that we have a wonderful contributing Indian community that I count amongst friends of my own. So, yes, that's the truth of the situation. 

PALLAVI JAIN: 
So just, I would like to conclude, Senator Price, what would you like to say to the community? Because I can assure you that all that's very nice to hear you, you know, to hear your comments. But there is, people are feeling distressed. I mean, there's no doubt about that. So, what would want to say? 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
Look, I would love for people in the Indian community to understand that despite that there are a handful of radicals that exist, obviously in every country, they have them, but the vast majority of Australians do support our Indian community. That was also on display on the weekend. I saw footage of members of the migrant community and one or two of them from the Indian community, arm in arm with the white Australian community, singing our national anthem together. The overall sentiment is that we are respectful of all of those that come to our country and want to work cohesively with one another around the country. You can be assured that there is, for every person that says something disparaging, there are many, many, many more that will stand alongside our wonderful Indian community. 

I hope to have the opportunity to meet, I guess, in person with those that certainly have been concerned after what has occurred in the last few days, the last week. To have face-to-face meetings with those and to bring community together to have these conversations I think is really important as well. But I know myself and my coalition colleagues are absolutely behind you and in your corner, and always prepared and ready to have meetings have conversations and engage in that regard. 

PALLAVI JAIN: 
Senator Jacinta Price, thank you so much for taking out your time and speaking with us today, thank you so much. 

SENATOR JACINTA NAMPIJINPA PRICE: 
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to and hopefully we can meet in person one day. Thank you. 

PALLAVI JAIN: 
Thank you.