Jacinta Nampijinpa Price rebuked for sharing false claim Labor ‘importing’ Indian migrants

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has been rebuked by Liberal colleagues after sharing a social media clip that falsely claimed Labor was “importing” Indian migrants, resurrecting the controversy that ended with her sacking by former leader Sussan Ley.

The backlash came as a new internal discussion paper admitted multicultural communities had “deep-rooted” concerns with the Liberals, urging the party to “instill message discipline” to prevent political opponents weaponising its positions as “hostile or racist”.

The Northern Territory senator was last year sacked from Ley’s frontbench after suggesting the federal government’s migration program favoured Indians to win Labor votes.

Price later clarified the initial remarks – acknowledging Australia has a non-discriminatory migration program – but refused to apologise for the hurt caused to Indian Australians.

The senator’s refusal to publicly express support for Ley was the final straw for the then-leader.

Earlier this week, Price, who was returned to the frontbench after Angus Taylor took over as leader, shared a social media clip from the rightwing podcaster Sam Bamford that harked back to the senator’s comments.

The host of the 2 Worlds Collide podcast filmed himself responding to last Sunday’s episode of the ABC’s Insiders program, in which panellists discussed Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Melbourne.

The panellists debated the potential electoral benefit for Anthony Albanese from engaging with Australia’s Indian community given the size of the diaspora.

In the clip, Bamford said: “We’re just importing Indians for votes. That’s pretty much what the ABC just said.

“It was not only a year ago that they came after Jacinta Price for pretty much saying the exact same thing,” he said.

Bamford’s claim about “importing” Indian migrants is false because Australia has a non-discriminatory immigration program, meaning it does not select or reject visa applicants based on nationality, race, gender or religion.

The Australian newspaper was first to report on Tuesday night that Price had re-posted Bamford’s clip to her X account. The post was still on her page as of 4.30pm on Wednesday.

Guardian Australia contacted Price’s office for comment.

A spokesperson for Price told The Australian that the shadow minister for small business wanted to “highlight the ABC’s commentary around the prime minister’s engagement with the Indian-Australian community during prime minister Modi’s visit”.

“The repost was not an endorsement of every comment made by the podcast host,” the spokesperson said, without specifying which part she might not have agreed with.

The Liberal senator Andrew McLachlan said it was “degrading” to the Indian community for anyone to suggest that its members voted the same way.

“Those that push this view are seeking to dehumanise people. In my experience, as with any community, there are variety of life experiences and a diversity of views,” he said.

“The Liberal party has a proud heritage of supporting multiculturalism and its enrichment to our country. Every member of our party not only needs to mindful of our policy heritage but also seek to build upon it.”

Price’s views did not “have a home” in the Liberal party, according to another senior Liberal, who said some colleagues had always felt uneasy about her joining from the Nationals.

It is the second time that Price has attracted controversy for associating herself with Bamford, a prominent anti-immigration advocate who has 400,000 followers on Instagram.

In May, she denied she agreed with the podcaster’s suggestion that Australia should stop migrants from India, China, Africa and the Middle East “flooding the country”, after footage showed her nodding her head during an interview between the pair.

Multicultural communities – in particular Chinese Australians – have abandoned the Liberal party at the past two elections, damaging them in seats in Sydney and Melbourne especially.