(Corrects paragraph 3 with designation and name of prime minister)
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Opposition Leader Sussan Ley sacked a senator from her shadow ministry on Wednesday, for making “deeply hurtful” comments about Indian immigrants and then refusing to endorse her leadership.
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a senator for the Northern Territory in the centre-right Liberal party, singled out Indian immigrants during a radio interview last week.
Price, who held the portfolios of defence industry and defence personnel in the shadow cabinet, refused to apologise for the comments despite condemnation by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and members of her own party and the Indian community.
Ley said she had sought Price’s resignation because she “failed the test” of high standards expected of a shadow minister.
“Senator Nampijinpa Price made comments that were deeply hurtful to Indian Australians,” she told a press conference on Wednesday.
“The comments were wrong and should not have been made. And despite being given the time and space to apologise, Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price did not offer an apology.”
In a statement, Price said she had accepted Ley’s decision and emphasised that she did not intend to disparage the Indian community but raise concerns over “the magnitude of migration”.
Price’s comments about one of Australia’s largest minority groups followed nationwide anti-immigrant protests that in part blamed Indian immigrants for cost-of-living pressures.
She suggested they were arriving in unsustainable numbers because they tended to vote for Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party.
In an earlier press conference on Wednesday, Price had vowed not to be “silenced” on immigration, and then refused to say whether she backed Ley’s leadership.
Hours later, Ley said, “Confidence in the leader is a requirement for serving in the shadow ministry.”
Price defected to the Liberal party from the Nationals following the defeat of Australia’s conservative opposition coalition in May’s general election.
(This story has been refiled to add the designation and the name of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in paragraph 3)
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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