Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has left the Country Liberal Party and switched allegiance to the Liberal party.
As a member of the Country Liberal Party Senator Nampijinpa Price previously sat in the National party room, but she’ll now move across to their coalition partners in the Liberal team.
It has been suggested that the move is so Senator Nampijinpa Price can potentially run for the position of Deputy Leader of the party alongside Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor.
Prior to entering parliament Senator Nampijinpa Price was a hip-hop artist and children’s television presenter in the Northern Territory. Her mother Bess Price was a minister in the CLP government of Andrew Giles.
In 2015 Nampijinpa Price began her political career serving on the Alice Springs Town Council, she also became a regular commentator on Sky News.
In 2019 she ran for the seat of Lingiari at the federal election but was not successful. At the 2022 she entered the senate after defeating incumbent Sam McMahon for pre-selection. Senator Nampijinpa Price’s profile rose considerably after she was appointed Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister under Peter Dutton and took a leading role in the campaign against The Voice to Parliament.
Unlike state senators who have six years terms, territory senators face re-election every three years. Just days after being reelected under the CLP banner, the senator has jumped ship to the Liberals.
In the lead up to the 2025 election Liberal leader Peter Dutton had announced that if a Liberal government had been formed she would have taken up the role of running an department focused on reducing government waste modelled on the USA’s DOGE that is run by billionaire Elon Musk.
During the election campaign Senator Nampijinpa Price was not often seen, but she did make one memorable appearance in Western Australia. During a media appearance she borrowed language from the Trump administration and proclaimed her goal was to “Make Australia Great Again!”.
The move has angered her National colleagues. Appearing on the Sky News program The Kenny Report on Thursday evening Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie said it was “incredibly disappointing” that Senator Nampijinpa Price has chosen to defect.
“Loyalty matters.” Senator McKenzie said. Later in the evening colleague Matt Cananvan said Nampijinpa Price had been motivated by her own ambitions.
“It’s very sad, I think Jacinta’s done enormous damage to her reputation.” Senator Canavan said. “She hasn’t spoken to members up there who elected her, hasn’t spoken to the party, hasn’t spoken to her colleagues in Canberra about this.”
“It’s like changing teams on the football field after the whistle has blown, it’s not the sort of behaviour Australians appreciate.”
“She’s doing this for her ambition. She’s doing it for her.” Senator Canavan told host Sharri Markson who argued that the senator might even become the new Liberal leader.
Speaking to Peta Credlin, Senator Nampijinpa Price defended her defection saying she was making the move for the good of Australians.
“I’ve always felt like the Liberal party room is my natural home, given that the Liberal party is the freedom party, the party of responsibility.” the senator said.
“We need strong people in the Liberal party, we need to be able to rebuild. We need to be able to ensure that we don’t lose broad support.” the senator said, arguing that her presence would strengthen the party and the wider coalition.
While Senator Nampijinpa Price has not declared any leadership ambitions, she did say she “would not put any limitations” on herself.
