Jacinta Price

Jacinta Yangapi Nampijinpa Price (; born 12 May 1981) is an Australian politician from the Northern Territory. She has been a senator for the Northern Territory since the 2022 federal election. She is a member of the Country Liberal Party, a conservative party operating in the Northern Territory and affiliated with the LiberalNational Coalition on a federal level. Since May 2025, she sits with the Liberal Party in federal parliament, having formerly sat with the Nationals. She has been the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Affairs since April 2023, also assuming the position of Shadow Minister for Government Efficiency in the lead up to the 2025 election.

Price has Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic heritageher mother is Bess Price, a former politician and Warlpiri woman. Her father is an educator with Irish ancestry. After a career as an entertainer singing, songwriting and hosting a Yamba Playtime children's program on Imparja TV, Price was elected to the Alice Springs Town Council in a by-election in October 2015, with her swearing-in overseen by her mother, who at the time was NT Minister for Local Government. In the 2019 federal election, she unsuccessfully stood for the Country Liberal Party in the Division of Lingiari.

Price's activism and views focus primarily on issues faced by Aboriginal communities, and she is a vocal advocate for conservative Aboriginal politics in Australia. She has highlighted the high rates of domestic and other violence in Aboriginal communities, and advocates for a law and order approach. She is critical of welfare dependency and "opportunistic collectivism". She opposed the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, and thinks that calls to change Australia Day and the Australian flag are counterproductive to Aboriginal advancement.

Early life

Price was born on 12 May 1981 in Darwin, Northern Territory, and grew up in Alice Springs. Her father, David Price, is of Anglo-Celtic descent and was born in Newcastle, New South Wales. Her mother, Bess Price, who served in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, is a Warlpiri woman. Her parents met in Yuendumu in 1976, working at the local school; David as a teacher in the bilingual program, while Bess was 15-16 years old producing Warlpiri literacy materials.

Bess Price is a fellow member of the CLP, who served as a minister in the Adam Giles NT Government, holding portfolios including housing and statehood, and was a vocal supporter of the Howard government's 2007 Northern Territory Intervention, that implemented new legislation in response to the crises facing Aboriginal communities.

Price has written that her mother was "born under a tree and lived within an original Warlpiri structured environment through a kinship system on Aboriginal land. Her first language was Warlpiri, and her parents, my grandparents, only came into contact with white settlers in their early adolescence in the 1940s."

She travelled widely with her family as a child, camping in the bush on swags. By the age of seven she had visited every Australian state and, by 12, had travelled around the world.

TV and musical career

Price is a NAIDOC Award-winning singer, songwriter and recording artist. As a child, she learned the violin before joining local hip-hop groups Flava 4 and C-Mobs. She began performing rap and hip-hop on stage with her cousins around the age of 15. In 2001, she was chosen to sing the national anthem for the Yeperenye Federation Festival. She was a member of the Alice Springs trio Catch the Fly, who wrote and performed songs about "friendship and the silliness that comes with friendship, and the poking fun at one another and laughing at ourselves". In Catch the Fly, Price adopted the persona of a "sexy, sassy, rap hip-hop chick" by the name of "Sassy J".

In 2013, she released her first music album ''Dry River'', a mix of folk, soul and country music, paying tribute to her life growing up in Central Australia. Triple J likened her sound to that of Tracy Chapman, while '' Land Rights News'' described her sound as a blend of folk, blues and country which "reflects her Aboriginal/Celtic heritage". The album was produced by Bill Chambers and Price’s husband Colin Lillie. Within the music industry, Price developed the Desert Divas program, which nurtures female Indigenous musical talent.

Price also had a TV career in the children's television program, '' Yamba's Playtime'', where she played the best friend of the lead character Yamba the Honey Ant. Price is in addition a regular guest on Sky News Australia.

Entry into politics

Alice Springs Council (2015–2021)

Price was elected as a councillor on the Alice Springs Town Council at a by-election in October 2015. At her swearing in to the Alice Springs council in 2015, Price's mother Bess Price officiated, as NT Minister for Local Government.

Price shared a close relationship with fellow councillor Jamie di Brenni, and agreed with him on most issues. She said in a 2017 interview that her values aligned with generally "with the old white fellas" on the council; however, she was against fracking as there is a potential risk to water sources from this practice. Price said that council had not done enough to combat the disproportionate amount of violence against women seen in Alice Springs, and she would like to see more campaigning on the issue. She had called a forum with women, including town camp residents, to discuss community needs and antisocial behaviour. She had also worked with the council's Youth Action Group, and had championed recreational and creative opportunities for youth in the town.

Price was the top scoring councillor candidate at the 2017 Alice Springs local government election, and stated at the time that she was committed to the Alice Springs Town Council, however six months into her four-year term, she announced she was seeking endorsement to be the CLP candidate for the Division of Lingiari at the upcoming 2019 Australian federal election. She became the Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs in September 2020. Meet the Indigenous candidates vying for your vote
; sbs.com.au 6 May, 2022 She served until August 2021, when she did not stand for re-election as a councillor.

2019 federal election candidate

Price stood unsuccessfully, as the Country Liberal Party candidate, for the Division of Lingiari at the 2019 federal election. She secured 44.54 percent of the two-party preferred vote against long-serving Labor incumbent Warren Snowdon, to his 55.46 percent.

In January of that year, Greens Lingiari candidate George Hanna, who is also indigenous, had shared a meme about Price, referring to her as a "coconut", a metaphor for someone of indigenous background who is attuned more to white cultural norms and values than those of native culture: like a coconut "white on the inside". Price described the post as despicable and racist, and called for the Greens to disendorse Hanna, but the Greens refused. Aboriginal activist Steve Hodder Watt accused Price of hypocrisy, and published messages in which Price referred to him as "white".

Price was also criticised over a video of an Al Jazeera video which she had posted to her Facebook page in 2014, and which had featured a critique of violence in Islam by writer-psychiatrist Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-American ex-Muslim. The Australian National Imams Council called the video Islamophobic. In response, a CLP spokesperson told the ABC News that her motivation for sharing the video was part of her long campaign against the use of religion or culture to justify violence against women.

Senator for the Northern Territory (2022–present)

Price became a Senator for the Northern Territory at the 2022 federal election, replacing Sam McMahon, whom she defeated for preselection in June 2021. She was pre-selected in the Country Liberal Party's number one Senate ticket position for the election, and successfully won the second of two seats alongside Labor's Malarndirri McCarthy. As a senator elected from a territory, Price's term commenced immediately, as opposed to senators elected from the states, whose terms are fixed to start from 1 July.

Maiden speech

Price delivered her first speech in the Senate on 27 July 2022. Prior to making the address, she took part in a traditional ceremony with her grandmother handing her a nulla-nulla hunting stick sourced from her Country. "The ceremony was telling the story about Jukurrpa, which is Dreaming relating to our family", Price said. "Passing on through this nulla-nulla the authority to me to speak on behalf of our area." Wearing traditional headdress for her maiden speech, she then outlined her priorities for office, citing housing, women's safety and economic development as key concerns. ''The Age'' reported that Price made an "impassioned plea against 'false narratives' of racism and alledthe push for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament a symbolic gesture that could divide black and white Australia". Price called for a restoration of law and order in remote communities to combat the scourge of violence:

Price invoked the legacy of the first Aboriginal Senator Neville Bonner to criticise welfare dependency and "opportunistic collectivism" as barriers to Aboriginal advancement:

Indigenous leader and politician Warren Mundine called the address the "greatest speech" he'd heard in parliament. Journalist Greg Sheridan called it "magnificent... a kind of Australian Gettysburg Address that should be read by all Australians". ''The Age'' newspaper called the speech a "red flag for Albanese" on the Indigenous Voice issue.

Shadow minister for Indigenous Australians (2023–present)

Price was appointed the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians in the Dutton shadow ministry on 18 April 2023. The prospect of her becoming Minister for Indigenous Australians has been viewed with concern by prominent Indigenous Australians.

Leaving the Nationals

In federal parliament, Price sat in the National Party room upon becoming a senator, but switched to sitting in the Liberal Party room in May 2025, saying that the Liberals were her "natural home". CLP senators normally sit in the National party room, since the CLP has full voting rights with the Nationals and observer status with the Liberals.

Price announced on 11 May that she will contest the Liberal deputy leadership election. She endorsed Angus Taylor's run for the leadership, saying that the Liberals needed to stand for "forgotten people." Her decision to defect was criticised by National senators Matt Canavan and Bridget McKenzie. Ultimately, following Taylor's loss to Sussan Ley for the leadership, Price did not contest the deputy leadership, won by Queensland MP Ted O'Brien.

Parliamentary expenses

Price has reportedly had to refund improperly claimed parliamentary expenses, totalling almost $11,000, on 13 occasions.

Political positions and activism

Price's activism primarily focuses on issues faced by Aboriginal communities.

Aboriginal autonomy

Price generally takes a conservative view towards issues facing Aboriginal communities. Price has criticised what she terms "paternalistic" approaches to Aboriginal autonomy. She advocates for law and order, racial equality before the law, and an end to welfare dependency and what she calls an "opportunistic collectivism" in Indigenous policy.

Price criticised former Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten for paternalism during his visit to Barunga in 2018.

Crime in Aboriginal communities

Price has highlighted the high rates of domestic and other violence in Aboriginal communities. She advocates for law and order, and racial equality before the law. She rejects the "white privilege" narrative and has criticised left-wing public discourse around Indigenous deaths due to violence and, in particular Aboriginal deaths in custody. In her maiden speech, Price rejected the idea of racism causing Aboriginal deaths in custody as a "false narrative", and told Parliament: "We cannot support legislation that prioritises freedom of the perpetrator over justice for the victim, in an attempt to reduce rates of incarceration."

Price rejects claims of systemic racism in the Australian prison system against Aboriginal people, citing the finding of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1987–1991) that there was no evidence that proportionately more Aboriginal Australians die in custody than non-Indigenous Australians. In her maiden speech, Price said "Our greatest problem lies with the fact that in the 0 years after the Royal Commission over 750 Indigenous Australians were murdered at the hands of other Indigenous Australians — yet there is little concern or acknowledgment that this is why Indigenous Australians are incarcerated at such high rates."

Following a June 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne, Price accused protesters of being ignorant and uncaring, stating: "70 percent of Aboriginal men and women incarcerated are incarcerated for acts of violence against their loved ones. he Leftdon't care because the perpetrators are also black, people only care if there is seen to be a white perpetrator. It's not racism that is killing our people, it is the actions of our own people". She argued that Black Lives Matter activists have been "ignoring the real crisis" facing Indigenous people.

Australia Day debate

Price thinks that calls to change Australia Day and the Australian flag are counterproductive to Aboriginal advancement.

In 2018, Price supported the "Save Australia Day" campaign promoted by One Nation politician Mark Latham. In 2021, she again criticised the push to change the date of Australia Day, saying that changing the date would not improve the lives of Aboriginal people. Price described Australia Day as a "magical day" and rejected claims that the day commemorates the subjugation of Aboriginal people.

Indigenous welfare policies

Price has been a vocal supporter of alcohol restrictions in remote Aboriginal communities and the cashless debit card, and criticised the Labor government for overturning these welfare policies. In her maiden speech, she said the overturning of grog bans would allow alcoholism and accompanying violence to flourish, while the cashless welfare card had improved the lives of many families on welfare, who could "feed their children rather than seeing their money claimed by kinship demand from alcoholics, substance abusers and gamblers". On 4 August 2022, she called for urgent action on the alcohol crisis in remote communities.

Voice to Parliament

Price opposed the Albanese government's proposal for a referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament within the Australian Constitution on the grounds that it would be a racially divisive bureaucracy that couldn't be dismantled, that it would set Indigenous and non-Indigenous people on an unequal footing, and would imply that Aboriginal people are a "separate entity to the rest of Australia". Noting her objections to the Voice, Aboriginal journalist Stan Grant told the '' ABC Insiders'' program on 31 July 2022 that Price will be "a significant and important voice on he issueand clearly others in the Coalition Opposition have gathered around her..."

In her maiden speech, Price told Parliament that the Labor government was "yet to demonstrate how this proposed Voice will deliver practical outcomes and unite rather than drive a wedge further between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia". In a 2022 book entitled ''Beyond Belief... Rethinking the Voice to Parliament'', Price wrote: "The globally unprecedented Voice proposal will divide Australia along racial lines... It will constitutionally enshrine the idea that Aboriginal people are perpetual victims – forever in need of special measures."

In November 2022, Price spoke to the media alongside Nationals leader David Littleproud to support the Party's formal announcement of opposition to the Voice, telling reporters, "What we need now is practical measures and we have to stop dividing our nation along the lines of race."

"No" campaign

Price fronted the "No to Voice" campaign. She, along with her Scottish husband, featured in an advertisement that talked about her life, and her upbringing in Alice Springs, and advocated for people to vote against a "race-based referendum". In the advertisement, she said she did not want her family to be divided along the lines of race. In a Sky News interview, she called the Indigenous Voice to Parliament a "bureaucratic structure which I think is divisive and dangerous and undermines democracy as we know it", but mentioned she supports the recognition of Indigenous Australians in the constitution. The Australian electorate voted against the proposal 60% to 40%.

Three weeks later, in a keynote speech to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship in London, Price described the outcome of the referendum as a turning point in the fight against identity politics:

They tried to teach everyday Australians that we belong to a racist country, tried to teach our children that they shouldn’t be proud to call themselves Australian, tried to suggest that if you voted No that you belonged to the wrong side of history – well, we showed them.

A correspondent from ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' said the Senator received a standing ovation. In an interview on the sidelines of the conference she mentioned that several European diplomats had wondered why Australia had even considered creating division along lines of race.

'Make Australia Great Again'

During a campaign rally in Perth on 12 April 2025, Price said she wanted to "make Australia great again”. When asked during a press conference if this was a nod to the “Make America Great Again” slogan most recently popularised by US President Donald Trump and the broader MAGA movement, Price claimed she “hadn’t realised” what she had said. National Party leader David Littleproud called Price’s phrasing a “slip of the tongue”.

However, one day later, ''The Guardian'' obtained a photo shared on Price's Facebook page that showed her and her husband Colin Lillie each wearing "Make America Great Again" baseball caps while Price also held a Donald Trump Christmas tree ornament. In response, Price claimed the picture to be "a stunt" and a "joke in her family", and criticised reporters for digging through her private social media.

In a heated election interview on the night of the 2025 Australian federal election, Price again distanced herself from the 'Make Australia Great Again' slogan after questions were put to her by Sarah Ferguson, on whether she was partly responsible for the Liberal Party's' shock landslide loss, and Liberal leader Peter Dutton's defeat in his own seat of Dickson. Price angrily rebuked Ferguson accusing her and the media of 'mud-slinging', 'smearing' and "misleading the Australian people", then repeated allegations of significant wrongdoing first raised by incumbent Labor MP Marion Scrymgour.

Scrymgour alleged that Aboriginal women in unspecified remote communities were targeted "by interstate volunteers for the Liberal Party" and that "men were standing over them". Price urged the ABC to "send an investigative journalist out" to investigate the allegations, suggesting that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) had been repeatedly alerted to the allegations, also accusing the AEC of 'doing very little' to investigate the allegations. Despite echoing allegations of Liberal Party wrongdoing, Price joined the Liberal Party several days later on 8 May 2025.

In a statement the AEC refuted the claims of inaction, noting that it had not observed wrongdoing of the nature Price had described, and had said that it had not received a specific complaint from Scrymgour. The day after the election an AEC spokesperson stated that the commission had not received any complaints or referrals from Price during the campaign. Price's allegations echo similar comments she made in 2023 alleging electoral misconduct around the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum. Some journalists have noted that whilst allegations of electoral fraud have become a major part of U.S. politics, they have generally remained in the periphery of Australian politics.

Awards and recognition

Price was presented with the inaugural Freedom and Hope Award at the Australian Conservative Political Action Conference held in Sydney in October 2022. ''Crikey'' described her as "the breakout star" of the event.

During her artistic career, Price was named Artist of the Year at the NAIDOC Awards in 2011, and was nominated for Most Promising New Talent in Music in the 2012 Deadly Awards. Her album ''Dry River,'' was a finalist in the folk category for the NT Song of the Year Awards in 2012.

Legal proceedings

Price launched defamation proceedings against the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2019 in response to its coverage of her "Mind the Gap" tour. She received a full public apology for "false and defamatory" material in April 2021.

In 2020, Price was sued for defamation by Nova Peris, former federal government senator for the NT, who is also Aboriginal. Price had accused Peris of protecting sexual predators while on the television program '' Studio 10''. According to transcripts provided by the Supreme Court of Victoria, Price stated that Peris had been involved with "powerful men who have made it to powerful positions who have never been condemned". Price later apologised to Peris for these remarks.

In August 2022, journalist Peter FitzSimons threatened to sue Price for defamation when she complained that he had been rude and aggressive in a telephone interview. Price urged FitzSimons and his newspaper, ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', to release the recording of the interview but they declined to do so.

Personal life

Price has three sons from a first marriage. She experienced domestic violence in a later relationship; after a lamp was thrown at her head, she required six stitches, and believed if she returned to the relationship that "he ouldkill me". By 2008 she had met Colin Lillie, a Scottish-Australian singer and songwriter, whom she married in a traditional ceremony before being married under Australian law. Price is a stepmother to Lillie's son from a previous relationship.

Outside of elected office, Price served as Indigenous program director for the Centre for Independent Studies, a libertarian think tank based in Sydney. Her January 2021 paper, ''Worlds Apart: Remote Indigenous disadvantage in the context of wider Australia'', surveyed the statistics on third-world conditions and extreme levels of violence in remote communities.

References

External links

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price at Centre for Independent Studies
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Jacinta
1981 births
Living people
Australian indigenous rights activists
Australian women human rights activists
Indigenous Australian politicians
People from Alice Springs
21st-century Australian politicians
21st-century Australian women politicians
Australian people of English descent
Australian people of Irish descent
Warlpiri people
Country Liberal Party members of the Parliament of Australia
Members of the Australian Senate
Members of the Australian Senate for the Northern Territory
Women members of the Australian Senate
National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia
People from Darwin, Northern Territory
Northern Territory local councillors