Prominent conservatives are rallying around Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as she faces mounting internal and external pressure to apologise for comments about Indian migrants.
The Victorian Liberal senator Sarah Henderson, the Nationals senator Matt Canavan and Victorian state Liberal MP Moira Deeming have all issued public statements of support for Price, further exposing divisions inside the Coalition as the saga continues.
The statements came as the Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, stopped short of calling on Price to apologise despite a growing number of Coalition MPs and the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, urging the Northern Territory senator to do so.
Senior Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie – Price’s former party room colleague – joined the former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce and the Liberal MP Alex Hawke in encouraging Price to apologise to the Indian community for suggesting the federal government’s migration program favoured them to help Labor win votes.
Price had walked back the comments – saying it was a mistake to suggest Australia had anything other than a non-discriminatory migration policy – but not apologised for them, causing frustration among colleagues who want to draw a line under an episode that has damaged the party’s relationship with the Indian diaspora.
Asked if she would request an apology from Price, Ley sidestepped the question.
“I know that the senator [Price] is listening to the Indian community and hearing their words directly in many instances, and I think that’s important, because where feelings are hurt, there needs to be a two-way dialogue, and there needs to be an understanding,” Ley said.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
Ley held her own roundtables with Indian diaspora and New South Wales colleagues, including the opposition leader, Mark Speakman, in Sydney, who said in an online post on Tuesday afternoon: “I and the NSW Coalition are sorry for the deep hurt many Indian Australians feel after a federal senator’s offensive comments last week.”
Guardian Australia sought details from Price’s office about any meetings with the Indian community.
Amid the widespread condemnation of Price’s remarks, Henderson – whom Ley dumped to the backbench after replacing Peter Dutton as leader – backed her conservative ally.
Henderson said her colleague had never “reflected adversely” on Indian Australians and condemned Labor MP Julian Hill for accusing Price of racism.
“[Price] is a magnificent Australian, she’s a warrior for common sense and for the most marginalised, including of course Indigenous Australians,” Henderson told Canberra radio station 2CC.
In social media posts that did not directly reference Price’s comments, Canavan described her as a “political rockstar” whose “best days are ahead”.
Deeming also threw her support behind Price.
“She [Price] is one of the few with the proven mettle in the fight for what’s right for all people against the Labor-Socialist machine and its predictable, automatic fear-mongering amongst the vulnerable – every time they need to cover their tracks,” the firebrand state MP wrote on X.
But not all of Price’s supporters are behind her, including NSW conservative Warren Mundine.
He wouldn’t be drawn on whether she should apologise, but criticised the public dispute with Hawke and said the issue needed to be handled “in-house”.
“We need to get back to being a credible opposition that is keeping things in-house, having discussions internally … and that’s where these comments should stay until such time as we have our policy clear, and have a clear message, because these things can go very badly if not dealt with properly.”
Internally, Price also faces growing frustration among Liberal colleagues who want to see her apologise and move on from the issue.
One Liberal, who wished to remain anonymous, said “it’s almost like she’s the senator for Advance”, and accused Price of trying to advance her own agenda.
A Liberal MP, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Guardian Australia the party has “degenerated into open warfare” after Price publicly criticised Hawke’s intervention in the saga.
“We rely on this being resolved and the clock is bloody ticking. Every day this keeps getting spoken about, the worse we’ll go,” they said.
“We need that authority being exerted from the leader very quickly.”
Albanese also weighed in on Tuesday.
“The comments are not true that the senator made and of course she should apologise for the hurt that has been caused and her own colleagues are saying that,” he said.
– with Australian Associated Press
