Jacinta Price has defiantly responded to Noongar leaders and community members who tried to prevent a town hall event from going ahead on Friday in Bunbury, south of Perth, where the shadow minister for Indigenous Australians was scheduled to speak.
A crowd of protesters gathered outside the town hall meeting to rally against Senator Price’s presence following her firm opposition to the Voice to Parliament.
Dozens of people held signs reading: “We say no to Jacinta”, and “Price does not speak for us”, while chanting “Jacinta Price has to go”.
The meeting, which was promoted on social media by the Liberal candidate for Forrest, Ben Small, was organised to discuss the defeat of the Voice in 2023, as well as the “scale of waste in the Albanese government” and a plan to get “Australia back on track”.
Senator Price strongly opposed the push to establish a Voice to Parliament for First Nations people, arguing it unnecessarily divided Australians and was “built on lies”.
Senator for Western Australia, Michaelia Cash, was also present as a guest speaker at the meeting, which was attended by about 100 people.
Dozens of police officers, from state and federal levels were present, but no arrests were made.
Senator Price said the protesting crowd were outraged she had not sought the permission of Indigenous Elders before arriving on their land, revealing she was asked why she “didn’t follow protocol”.
The shadow minister said she stood her ground and opted to attend because she should not have her “freedom of movement restricted by anyone in this country”.
“There were those who suggested I should have reached out and sought permission from local elders as to whether I could actually be there or not on their land,” she told Sky News host Steve Price.
“I stood my ground and I said: ‘Well, as an individual in my own right, an elected representative of the Parliament of Australia, I should not have my freedom of movement restricted by anybody in this country’.
“I wasn’t going to back down.”
When asked if it was normal practice to seek permission from an Indigenous Elder to move around the country, Senator Price said it was not, adding that such a thing was detrimental to a democracy.
“I think what we shouldn’t be doing is damaging a democracy in Australia in 2025 and allowing this sort of behaviour to stifle debate or silence those voices different to others,” she said.
“Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but otherwise this is an act attempting to silence me, I won’t be silenced.”
Senator Price rejected the assertion her Indigenous culture obligates her to conform to the views other Indigenous people may try to impose on her.
“I’m an individual in my own right, I have my own human rights, I can choose whatever element of traditional culture that is part of my upbringing that I want to and I don’t have to live by others,” she said.
