Pressure is mounting on Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, with colleagues and the Prime Minister joining calls for her to apologise after she falsely claimed Labor was using immigration to boost its electoral chances.
The controversy stems from an interview on the ABC last week, where Senator Price suggested the federal government was bringing in migrants "from particular countries over others" to win votes, citing the Indian community as an example.
Her comments have strained relations with Indian Australians and put the Liberal Party in damage control, with several MPs distancing themselves from her remarks.
The issue has also complicated opposition deputy leader Sussan Ley's efforts to rebuild trust with multicultural communities and move the party away from the anti-migrant stance associated with former leader Peter Dutton.
Following the ABC interview, Senator Price issued a clarification saying Australia's migration policy was non-discriminatory and that "suggestions otherwise are a mistake" — but she stopped short of apologising. However, the next day, she doubled down, insisting she had nothing to apologise for and blaming the ABC interviewer for raising the issue.
"What I was doing was highlighting the fact that there is huge concern for Labor's mass migration agenda, which is applying pressure to housing, to infrastructure, to services. Then I was further pursued on this line of talking," she told reporters.
On the weekend, Senator Price escalated the dispute, accusing Liberal colleague Alex Hawke of "cowardly and inappropriate" behaviour. She alleged Mr Hawke phoned her office on Thursday and "chose… to berate one of my staff".
"He even pressed my staff that if I did not comply with his requests, I may end up like another female member of the Coalition — who I won't name," she wrote.
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Calls for apology mount
A slew of politicians have called for the Senator to apologise, arguing even if the comments were clumsy rather than intentional, they need to be quickly rectified.
Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser apologised directly to the Indian community, telling an event at the IABBV Hindi School: "It pains me to say it, but I feel like I have to say it. My colleague Jacinta Price said something this week that I want to apologise unreservedly for." He also posted a Facebook video saying he wanted "to apologise to the Indian community for any offence they felt from recent comments made by one of my colleagues."
Appearing on Insiders on Sunday, Ms Ley said Senator Price's comments "were wrong".
"They should not have taken place, and corrections have been made. They will not be repeated," she said.
However, when asked three times to apologise on her colleague's behalf, Ms Ley declined.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the remarks were "not true" and that Senator Price "should apologise for the hurt that has been caused".
"Her own colleagues are saying that, but even more importantly, leaders in the community are asking for that as well," he said.
Nationals frontbencher Bridget McKenzie also urged Senator Price to do the "appropriate, responsible thing" and apologise.
"I think when you're a leader and a community leader, as those of us that are in senior ministry positions in parliament are, if you've offended somebody and you didn't mean to, the appropriate, responsible thing to do is to apologise," she told Brisbane's 4BC.
Speaking to Sky News on Monday, Senator Price expressed "regret" about the ABC remarks but maintained her complaint about Mr Hawke's conduct.
"The regret that I have is that I wasn't clearer in terms of my comments on the ABC, and since then... made those points very clear and made a clarification," she said.
"I have asked our leader if she would ask Alex Hawke to apologise to me for his conduct. I'm a Liberal woman, and Liberal women need to be able to feel like they're being supported wholeheartedly."
