Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she wants to focus on rebuilding the Liberal Party 'for the benefit of all Australians' in the wake of the Coalition's huge federal election loss.
"Having put up my hand for the position of Deputy Leader supporting Angus Taylor is how I have chosen to do this," the Warlpiri Celtic woman told NITV in a statement.
If successful, Senator Nampijinpa Price will become the first Indigenous woman in the leadership of a major political party.
'I'm obliged to step up'
Federal Country Liberal Party politicians from the NT have the option of sitting with either the Liberal or National parties.
Since she was elected in 2022, Senator Nampijinpa Price has sat with the National Party, until she announced late last week she would be defecting to the Liberal Party.
She gave her own assessment of why the Coalition had failed so dismally at the polls this election.
"We ran an election driven by fear - that should never have been the case," Senator Nampijinpa Price told Sky News.
"Because the Australian people could see that some of us had some wonderful policies, but we were stifled from being able to give that message, tell Australians ... what we had on offer, and do it with conviction.
"I'm very passionate about our country and the direction in which it is going, because I've seen how socialism has destroyed the lives of those that I love in remote communities and with the Labor government now in power for three more years, it is the most marginalised who miss out, let alone everyday Australians in all of this.
"And so I guess the fighter in me feels I'm obliged to step up."
While Senator Nampijinpa Price has become a valued presence in conservative circles - frequently speaking at events and writing opinion pieces - her relationship with First Nations communities is much more fractious.
She has been highly critical of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and First Nations leaders; is in open warfare with NT land councils, including a defamation case from the Central Land Council chief executive; has seen protests for not connecting with local Traditional Owner groups when visiting various parts of the country and has faced criticism from Indigenous groups for not listening to their expertise.
More than 100 First Nations groups wrote an open letter opposing the Coalition's call for a royal commission into sexual abuse of Indigenous children - an inquiry that Senator Nampijinpa Price has repeatedly called for,
Writing for Newscorp over the weekend, Noel Pearson, one of the architects of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the Native Title Act, said that for Nampijinpa Price, the election was her "denouement as a one-trick pony".
"Her great power came from her willingness to take up the mantle against her own people, and 61 per cent of Australians rejoiced in the relief from history she gave them," he wrote.
"You can’t just replay your greatest single hit and expect to have a political career of any substance.
"She has served her purpose. There is nothing left in her bag of tricks.
"All she is good for is to play the old hit single again and again."
Cultural heritage laws have also been a frequent target of Senator Nampijinpa Price's criticism.
In a wide-ranging self-described 'rant' to Facebook live on April 21, before the election, Senator Nampijinpa Price said that under a Coalition government "you wouldn't see parts of our natural environment closed off and people having no access to them ... based on racial heritage."
In a social media post a few days later, Senator Nampijinpa Price proposed reforms to federal cultural heritage laws that would introduce a national interest test.
"Rock climbing at magnificent places like Mount Arapiles is being decimated because of cultural heritage laws that aren’t fit for purpose," she said.
But in response to questions, the senator rejected that she had ever said that "Traditional Owners in Victoria should not be able to enact any restrictions on rock climbing and any such suggestion is a blatant misrepresentation of the Coalition’s position".
"The Coalition’s cultural heritage reform proposes a balancing of the interests of Traditional Owners with genuine cultural heritage claims and the protection of the environment with the interests of those who want to develop, engage in tourism or recreation, such as rock climbers at Mount Arapiles in Victoria," she said in response to NITV's questions.
"What we cannot allow are the increasingly common vexatious claims, or those backed by poor evidence."
In 2020 the Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Minister placed an Interim Protection Declaration on a rock art site in the Dyurrite Cultural Landscape after it was brought to the attention of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council that people were climbing on and around rock art.
The land council says on their website that they and Parks Victoria have conducted numerous cultural heritage and environmental surveys within the in order to assess the impact of recreational activities on cultural values and the environment.
"These surveys revealed significant rediscoveries of cultural and environmental values that need to be protected," Barengi Gadjin Land Council says.
Stuart Harradine from the Wotjobaluk nations says that many recreational activities have caused harm to heritage values.
"Seeing visitors trampling over ceremony sites or artefact scatters or seeing climbing bolts drilled into the bones of our Creation Ancestors or at our rock art sites causes enormous distress to Traditional Owners," reads an online statement.
"When our health and well-being are impacted in this way, it calls into question our very place within the Creation (Dreaming) Cycle.
"While this may be beyond a full understanding within conventional Western thought, it is why Traditional Owners must reassert their ancient cultural responsibilities to care for Country and Culture, so that this harm can be minimised."
The Liberal Party leadership ballot is due to take place in Canberra on Tuesday.
Senator Nampijinpa Price did not answer NITV's question whether, if successful in becoming Angus Taylor's deputy, that next election she would consider a run in the House of Representatives.
