An unshackled Jacinta Nampijinpa Price will be even more outspoken after her return to the backbench but will have to put her leadership ambitions on ice.
The firebrand Northern Territory senator, who is popular with many conservative coalition supporters, was sacked from the shadow cabinet by Opposition Leader Sussan Ley on Wednesday evening after repeatedly failing to declare support for her leadership.
Senator Nampijinpa Price was promoted from the backbench during her first term in parliament in a meteoric rise built on her successful opposition to the Indigenous voice.
She quit the Nationals to sit in the Liberal party room following the coalition's disastrous election defeat in May as part of an aborted plan to contest the deputy leadership.
Liberal insiders have downplayed speculation of any impending challenge to Ms Ley's leadership after a week-long saga that followed Senator Nampijinpa Price's controversial comments about Indian migrants.
Despite the senator's clear ambition to rise within the conservative party, Monash University head of politics Zareh Ghazarian pointed out that Senator Nampijinpa Price's position in the upper house would be a key barrier to her ever becoming leader.
"It would be a very risky move at the moment, with Labor still rating highly in opinion polls," he said.
"What may happen is that now Senator Nampijinpa Price has the freedom of being able to talk about things that she wants to talk about without having to be wary of the ideals of party unity or being a member of the shadow cabinet, because they have that flexibility."
Responding to her axing, the outspoken senator vowed to "speak up" on issues such as immigration that were "in the national interest and that are important to millions of Australians".
"This has been a disappointing episode for the Liberal Party," she said in a statement.
"I will learn from it. I'm sure others will too. No individual is bigger than a party.
Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott said Senator Nampijinpa Price would be a big loss to the coalition's front bench, but he was confident she would "continue to make a strong contribution to our public life".
Opposition home affairs spokesman Andrew Hastie, who has confirmed his own ambition to one day lead the Liberals, said the "knives are not being sharpened" against Ms Ley.
"It didn't have to get to this point, but what is done is done and it can't be undone," he said.
"You can't sit in a shadow cabinet or an outer ministry if you can't support the leader."
