Ley had little choice, but sacking Price could cost her

5 days ago 8

What started as a clumsy statement from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in a TV interview last week has, through political mismanagement, spiralled into a test of Opposition Leader Sussan Ley’s authority.

Ley had little choice but to sack the darling of conservative Australia. The Coalition was losing support each day the Indian migrants saga went on. Until an unusually late snap press conference in Tasmania at 6.30pm on Wednesday, Ley was reluctant to be too hard on Price.

Jacinta Price addresses the media in Perth on Wednesday

Since becoming leader, Ley has tried to correct the excesses of the previous era, chiefly the command-and-control model that vested near-total authority in former leader Peter Dutton and his office.

The new Coalition leader’s more collaborative style looked good on paper but made it hard to keep the troops in line.

That Price as a frontbencher felt bold enough to stare down Ley’s wish for her to apologise for inflammatory remarks on Indian migration spoke volumes about Ley’s control over sections of her party room.

To rub salt into a wound, Price decided on Wednesday afternoon to kick the saga along by holding a press conference, insisting she would not be silenced, and then repeatedly saying “those matters are for our party room” when asked if she had confidence in Ley as leader.

A leader in a more authoritative position would have demanded an immediate apology from Price last Wednesday after she falsely claimed that Indian migrants were getting visas because they voted for Labor. Instead, Ley’s key ally, Alex Hawke, handled the dirty work.

Ley did ask Price to say sorry in a phone call on Monday, worried about the reaction of Indian Australians, who Price’s colleagues know are plentiful and quite open to voting for the Coalition, contrary to false suggestions that 85 per cent vote Labor.

In a previous era, Price’s days of defiance would have seen her plonked on the backbench much earlier. But political standards have dropped.

And Ley had motivations to keep Price in the tent. She is one of the few opposition MPs with a support base outside the Canberra parliamentary party and the state branches that elect its members. She’s a fundraising machine; fights for values, unlike some of her more robotic colleagues; and lights up conservative forums.

Ley could still kill off Price’s career by pushing the NT’s Country Liberal Party, already frustrated with Price’s defection from the Nationals, to push Price off the 2028 Senate ticket.

Doing so would earn even more ire from Price’s media backers, former prime minister Tony Abbott, and a number of serving MPs and party members.

They may cast Price as a martyr who held the line on the key conservative issue of migration, viewing Ley as too weak and woke.

Nationals leader David Littleproud is privately happy to be rid of Price, so a move back to the junior Coalition party is hard to see. Shifting to One Nation – which would give it five senators, more than the Nationals – is unlikely because Price would kill off her hopes of leading a major party. Hanson talked to Price years ago about joining forces, but the idea went nowhere.

Some of Price’s closest right faction allies were until Wednesday morning begging her to apologise and put the saga to bed. One joked that MPs were hoping Israel bombed another country to divert attention.

Ley’s office was on Wednesday morning hopeful Price was getting closer to an apology, before an early afternoon press conference blew that prospect apart.

Price, according to her friends, insists she wasn’t trying to create a leadership crisis. There is no leadership challenge in the offing and Ley comfortably has the numbers. But what started as an isolated feud could still escalate.

Price’s allies say she decided to dig in because she was still angry about the alleged lashing she received from Hawke.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley confirms Price’s demotion to the backbench.

Conservative figures such as Abbott and Peta Credlin, Price’s biggest backers, have a special distaste for Hawke and his small but influential centre right faction in NSW that helps keep moderates in power.

Typically, a frontbencher who refuses to back the leader quits their position immediately and launches a swift coup. Price’s move appeared less strategic. She almost stumbled into her own sacking.

Ley took the drastic but necessary step to prove her chops as leader.

The star power Price earned during the Voice campaign has faded. But she remains a darling on the right, and on the backbench she will be free to say whatever she wants, whenever she likes.

Politics is never fair. Her sacking was necessary but now it will unleash conservative anger. If Ley faces a coup down the track, this night will be viewed as the first domino.

Ley’s move is another sign that the conservative faction doesn’t run the post-Dutton parliamentary party.

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