Liberal Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says MPs from her own party who have backgrounded journalists against senior MP Andrew Hastie should "have the courage to own their comments instead of hiding behind anonymity," as the Liberals continue to publicly attack each other in the wake of their election defeat in May.
Alongside Coalition Senator Matt Canavan, Senator Price backed Mr Hastie after he used Instagram to call unnamed colleagues cowards and muppets for criticising him anonymously.
The row has again exposed divisions in the opposition over net zero, migration, and how to win back metropolitan seats held by Labor and the Teals. Mr Hastie came under fire from anonymous MPs in The Australian for posting a slick social media video on Sunday, in which he promoted local manufacturing by posing in denim next to a red 1969 Ford Falcon.
Responding on Tuesday, Mr Hastie posted a screenshot of the article with the words "nameless cowards", and added that his video was produced by "competent, patriotic Gen Z staffers, you muppets".
Well said, Matt Canavan.
The Liberal MPs who disagree with Andrew Hastie's views should have the courage to own their comments instead of hiding behind anonymity.
It seems like the factional warlords are in overdrive with their pathetic backgrounding efforts to undermine a… https://t.co/YWDoYPAbK2
— Jacinta Nampijinpa (@JNampijinpa) September 23, 2025
Mr Canavan shared the post on X, criticising "cowards that don't put their name to comments". Senator Price, who like Mr Hastie, is a vocal critic of net zero, also weighed in on X (formerly Twitter), writing that "factional warlords are in overdrive with their pathetic backgrounding efforts to undermine a debate our country must have".
"The Liberal MPs who disagree with Andrew Hastie's views should have the courage to own their comments instead of hiding behind anonymity," she said. "Andrew Hastie asks an important question, 'What sort of country do we want to be?'"
Senator Price has faced her own controversy in recent weeks after falsely accusing Labor of importing Indian migrants to boost their electoral vote. Her refusal to apologise and failure to support Sussan Ley's leadership led to her sacking from the opposition front bench.
She has since vowed to keep speaking out on issues she says matter to "millions of Australians," citing "Indigenous issues", the Chinese Communist Party's aggression, and the "ramifications of mass migration".
In his original video, Mr Hastie — who last week said he would resign from the front bench if the Liberals did not abandon net zero — declared that Australia once made "complex things". Standing beside the Ford Falcon, he said: "We're a nation of flat-white makers, when we could be making beautiful cars like this again."
"I'm for Australians, I'm for putting Australians first. I want to see us making complex things because I'm ambitious for my country," he says in the video. The video has been liked more than 12,000 times.
View this post on Instagram
Over the weekend, Senator Price continued to speak out on issues she considers important, telling the Conservative Political Action Conference Australia (CPAC) that the Liberals lost the last election because they failed to "prosecute policies".
"We need to stop being a Labor-lite party or Labor in blue," she said, calling for the party to abandon net zero, cut migration and restore family values. She described climate targets as "communism" and said: "It's time the Liberals pushed back against this freedom-eroding nonsense."
"Labor and the Greens treat culture as disposable. They undermine and rewrite history, mock tradition and replace unity with division," she said. "Without a strong cultural identity, no economy will stand. Without social cohesion, no defence force can hold."
Defending Mr Hastie — who has admitted his anti-net-zero stance is a minority view inside the party — Senator Price praised his "courage and conviction to engage in the battle of ideas" on social media, saying it stood in contrast to the "censorious behaviour of factional warlords".
"My colleagues who criticise him should focus on delivering exactly that, instead of attacking their own," she said.
One of leading factional warlords is Liberal MP Alex Hawke, who is widely disliked within the party's hard-right faction and has been repeatedly criticised by Sky News host and former Tony Abbott staffer Peta Credlin. Mr Abbott, along with Ms Credlin, and vocal supporters of Senator Price and have urged the Liberals to go further right in order to win back voters.
Earlier this month, following her migration comments on the ABC, Senator Price accused Mr Hawke of "cowardly and inappropriate" conduct after he allegedly "berate[d] one of my staff".
