Hawke on Monday confirmed he told Price she should say sorry for her comments, and said he was repeating that call in public because the senator had since exposed their conversation.
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“She disagreed with me, and she has disagreed with me. But I’ve looked at the damage in the community, and there is real damage now on both sides.”
Hawke said he was still receiving emails from Price’s supporters on Monday saying “words to the effect of: there’s too many Indian people coming into the country, that’s bad, she needs to address that”.
“After those flyers we saw before the anti-immigration rallies, which singled out the Indian community, this was a particularly bad week for these comments,” he said.
“And then I’ve got members of the Liberal Party, some from South-East Asian communities and Indian communities, saying we really feel hurt.”
March for Australia, which organised last weekend’s rallies, on Monday afternoon used Price’s image in a Facebook post about immigration policy and the Liberal Party.
“There is a role here, a real leadership role, for Jacinta to play in walking this back a bit further, and just saying … to her own supporters, ‘I never meant to obviously say that’,” Hawke told the ABC later on Monday.
“I believe she didn’t, but the heat is still there. It’s – if anything – getting a little bit worse, no doubt fed with fuel from the Labor Party taking political advantage, which isn’t helping social cohesion.”
Ley has been in damage control as she seeks to repair the Liberal Party’s reputation, holding roundtables with Indian and Chinese Australians on Monday, the day after she led a contingent of Liberals on a tour of Little India in Sydney’s Harris Park.
Some businesses were happy to host them, but several others refused, saying they would not engage with Ley or the Liberals until Price issued an unconditional apology or was sacked from the shadow ministry, where she serves as spokeswoman for defence industry.
Ley declined to apologise on Price’s behalf, but the crisis escalated when Price made a rare public allegation against Hawke.
“He even pressed my staff that if I did not comply with his requests, I may end up like another female member of the Coalition – who I won’t name,” Price wrote on social media.
“If people want to talk about a so-called ‘woman problem’ in the Liberal Party, then it’s this: we don’t stand up for women when they are mistreated by our own colleagues.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley with Gurmeet Singh Tuli (left), the president of Little India Australia, and opposition immigration minister Paul Scarr, eating Indian food on Sunday in Sydney.Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
Hawke denied it was an angry conversation. “All I said to Jacinta was, ‘Would you consider apologising to the community for making a mistake about the remarks?’” he said.
“I’ve raised the immigration issue and I’ve raised the race issue. I can’t see how it has a gender perspective.“
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The public stoush comes months after Price defected from the National Party so she could run for the Liberal Party’s deputy leadership on Angus Taylor’s ticket. Ley, supported by Hawke, won against Taylor by three votes.
Hawke told Sky News it was not a case of moderate and conservative factional infighting. “She’s just joined the Liberal Party and she’s been welcomed with open arms,” he said.
He later told the ABC the saga did not reflect well upon the Liberal Party. “I’d probably be backing in my judgement at the election that you re-elected the government,” he said, when asked what voters would think.
“That’s what happens when you give a big majority to the government, and you say to an opposition, ‘go get your stuff sorted out’. You expect them to go away and get their stuff sorted out.”
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