Liberal Senator Jacinta Price Shares Clip Alleging Labor Imports Indian Migrants for Votes, Then Clarifies Policy Is Non-Discriminatory

Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price shared a social media clip earlier this week that claimed the Labor government was importing Indian migrants for votes. The post remained on her X account as of 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, The Guardian reported.

Price had been sacked from the frontbench last year by then-Liberal leader Sussan Ley after making similar suggestions about the migration program favoring Indians. She was returned to the frontbench after Angus Taylor became leader. Her refusal to publicly support Ley was the final factor in the earlier dismissal, The Guardian reported.

Bamford added that Price had faced criticism a year earlier for stating the same thing. Australia maintains a non-discriminatory immigration program that does not select applicants based on nationality, race, gender or religion, The Guardian reported. Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan said it was “degrading” to the Indian community to suggest its members voted the same way.

“Those that push this view are seeking to dehumanise people,” McLachlan said. He added that the Liberal Party has a proud heritage of supporting multiculturalism. An unnamed senior Liberal said Price’s views did not have a home in the party and that some colleagues had always felt uneasy about her joining from the Nationals.

A Liberal internal discussion paper stated that multicultural communities had “deep-rooted” concerns with the Liberals and urged the party to instill message discipline. The paper noted that some Liberal policies had been misappropriated by opponents as hostile or racist and that engaging with multicultural communities was a political imperative.