‘Ludicrous’: Michaelia Cash slams calls for Jacinta Price to be dropped from campaign event in Bunbury

Senior Liberals have lashed out at an email calling for Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to be dropped from a campaign event, calling it “ludicrous.” Senator Michaelia Cash and Forrest Liberal candidate Ben Small both vowed to attend the town hall-style meeting in Bunbury on Friday, after calls from a local academic to drop Senator Price from the event. The Nightly revealed on Tuesday Renae Isaacs-Guthridge had written to Mr Small calling for the event to be cancelled, and demanding consultation with local elders before Ms Nampijinpa Price was invited to the region. Senator Cash labelled the email as “ludicrous,” vowing to attend along with Mr Small. “It is really disappointing, though, that a small group of activists have sought to politicise this event for their own personal event, their own personal benefit,” Senator Cash said. “The idea that anybody in Australia, including Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, needs to seek permission from someone else to hold an event anywhere in Australia, in this case in Bunbury, is utterly ludicrous.” Mr Small said he was disgusted by the email, and called on other candidates to support her right to freedom of speech. “Someone in our community has asserted that they have a veto right over the freedom of movement of a fellow Australian,” he said. “Now that is particularly offensive in the case of any ordinary Australian but I believe even more so when we are talking about someone who holds high elected office and who happens to be a proud indigenous woman “I don’t think I’ve ever received an email in a political sense that has been a direct assault against the very freedoms on which this country is built.” In the email sent on Monday night, Ms Isaacs-Guthridge, an academic at Edith Cowan University and Wardandi Custodian, saying Senator Nampijinpa Price’s positions on the Voice were considered by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be “harmful and dismissive of lived experiences.” “Bringing such perspectives to Wardandi Country without appropriate consultation appears to disregard local cultural protocols and community sentiment,” she said. She demanded Mr Small cancel the event and clarify which local elders and organisations he consulted before inviting Senator Nampijinpa Price to the area, as well as an explanation of how her presence “aligned with local community interests.” “The advertising of this event has caused much angst and distress amongst the Noongar community, and we would like an appropriate and immediate response from you,” she wrote. Senator Nampijinpa Price told The Nightly there was no need to seek permission to visit a region and the claim was “nothing but politically-motivated malice.”