Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has vowed to "make Australia great again" before arguing that the media are obsessed with US President Donald Trump.
Speaking to a crowd in Perth on Saturday, the Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians—who had been largely absent on the first two weeks of the campaign trail; paraphrased the rallying cry made famous by President Trump.
"We have incredible candidates right around the country that I'm so proud to be able to stand beside and to ensure that we can make Australia great again; that we can bring Australia back to its former glory; that we can get Australia back on track," she said.
Questioned on the statement moments later in a press conference alongside opposition leader Peter Dutton in the seat of Tangney, Senator Price stated, "If I said that, I don't even realise I said that" before arguing it was not "an ode" to the president.
"Let's be very, very clear, media, you're obsessed with Donald Trump. We're not obsessed with Donald Trump. We're actually obsessed with ensuring that we can improve the circumstances for Australians," she said.
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The outspoken NT Senator, who was heckled by Noongar protestors at an event on Friday, then said: "But no, I'm an Australian and I want to ensure that we get Australia back on track."
In January, Senator Price was appointed shadow minister for government efficiency to help clean up "wasteful spending", in what at the time seemed like a nod to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency under the Trump Presidency.
However, since then, polling numbers have dropped for the Coalition, with Labor attempting to align Mr Dutton with Trump and his policies.
Despite calling last questions, Senator Price then told reporters a Coalition government would "reset the curriculum" for schools as well as cutting red and green tape to "ensure we're not providing funds for ridiculous grants".
"We're not providing funds for ridiculous grants, like colonising breastfeeding, like treating oral care as a form of colonisation in this country," the Senator said.
Senator Price reiterated her plan to audit spending in the Indigenous Affairs portfolio if elected, repeating her lines that billions of dollars are being spent on Closing the Gap but "nothing is changing to improve the lives of marginalised Indigenous Australians".
"I have always said that I would want to conduct an audit, which is what we have promised, she said.
She argued an audit would be about "ensuring that we're redirecting funds and investing to provide outcomes across portfolios for all Australians to benefit all Australians, instead of wasting money pouring it down the drain, which is what Albanese has done for the last three years".
Conservative media have been highlighting grants and academic involvement in universities that have centred on students' learning and being involved in understanding decolonisation and Indigenous sovereignty.
This week, Crikey reported that right-wing lobby group ADVANCE has been targeting millions of voters with digital advertisements about government-funded research into improving Indigenous breastfeeding rates.
Senator Price has previously said of the funding: "The Albanese Labor government is on a wasteful spending spree with your taxpayer funds."
On Saturday, she claimed students were being indoctrinated in schools as "opposed to education".
"They're being forced to have to provide a welcome to country within their essays for crying out loud, and that if they don't provide the appropriate form of welcome to country, acknowledgment of country, that they will be marked down," she said.
"I mean, this is all ideologically driven."
The Senator was popular in WA during the voice campaign, and many of the right have called for to be front and centre during the election campaign.
After Senator Price finished the press conference arguing the Environmental Defender's Office needs to be defunded and Labor is under the thumb of "radical fringe groups," Mr Dutton told reporters her comments are "exactly why Jacinta Price will be in a cabinet that I lead".
Talking to reporters in Perth, Health Minister Mark Butler said the Coalition had said the "quiet part out loud".
"Australia is the best country in the world. And if Jacinta Price doesn't realise that, that's really disappointing. What she said today tells us that they just want to import US policies and US slogans to Australia. The only thing she didn't have today was the hat," he said.
