If Jacinta Price is the answer, Liberals are asking wrong question

A lesson of the election campaign is that the Liberal Party should never be Labor-lite on economics, but heading in a Trump-like direction would be a dead end.

May 11, 2025 – 5.15pm

If Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is the answer then the Liberal Party isn’t asking the right question.

Having represented the Northern Territory in the Senate and sat in the Nationals party room for the past three years, Price defected to the Liberals last week. She announced yesterday her intention to run as Angus Taylor’s deputy in Tuesday’s parliamentary party leadership contest.

Angus Taylor and defector Jacinta Price have formed a leadership ticket for the Liberal Party

The 43-year-old senator’s prominent part in the No campaign helped defeat the Indigenous Voice to parliament referendum and made her a “rock star” in the eyes of many party loyalists, to borrow a phrase from Angus Taylor’s interview with The Australian Financial Review on Sunday. That is the foundation of her large following among the Liberal Party’s rusted-on conservative base. Taylor rightly argues, “the traditional role of deputy leader is to work with our supporters, the branch members, the state divisions and make sure we are robust and prepared for elections”.

However, the deputy also needs to be a reliable performer. Price’s fans seem to be forgetting that her promotion in February by Peter Dutton to take charge of an Elon Musk-style DOGE position as shadow minister for government efficiency was not a success.

Dutton’s embrace of a Trumpish agenda proved a major factor in the crushing election loss that turfed him out of parliament. Price’s tin-earned sloganising about seeking to “Make Australia Great Again” was a viral moment that assisted Labor’s campaign to portray a Coalition government as risky.

Making ill-judged and ill-timed statements during an election is not a good recommendation for promotion. Neither is Price’s lack of portfolio experience (combined with her naked ambition and opportunism in deserting the Nationals) at time when the party needs to do a lot detailed work coming up with a policy platform based on economic responsibility, personal aspiration and a vibrant private sector.

Yet commentators operating in media echo chambers are backing Price, based mainly on her politically incorrect statements about Indigenous Australia. It’s wrong to argue Australians are completely unbothered by the excesses of identity politics, but the election proves it’s not a major concern for many Australians. Obsessing about left-wing social issues threatens to send the party deeper down the electoral rabbit hole it is already in.

The focus on culture war issues to the exclusion of all else by Sky After Dark commentators has created a defective feedback loop that misleads the Liberals about the issues that matter to most voters. On top of the brand damage by association, these culture warriors rarely focus on the budget, tax, regulatory and industrial relations issues that the Liberal Party needs to re-learn how to fight elections on, to offer voters a substantial and compelling alternative to Labor.