Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has moved to repair relations with Indian Australians after Liberal senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price suggested the government was favouring the community for immigration because they tended to vote Labor.
Ley on Friday sent video messages to the Indian diaspora and has also been distributing videos on Chinese social platform WeChat months after senator Jane Hume caused controversy by mentioning “Chinese spies” just before election day.
“You contribute as Australian Indians so much to our country,” Ley said in the video. “We know how hard you work, your family values, and the contribution you make across this country, and as opposition leader I value that incredibly.”
Ley, whose office pushed Price into reversing her statement shortly after she made it on Wednesday, will ramp up her engagement with multicultural groups next week after a parliamentary sitting period dominated by a debate over attitudes towards migration.
In a WeChat video, Ley said: “Our Australian-Chinese communities contribute enormously to our economy, education, culture, and society.”
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Price’s decision to specifically mention Indian migrants, who protesters targeted at anti-immigration rallies last weekend, complicated Ley’s post-election promise to rebuild the Coalition’s reputation in multicultural communities that have turned against the opposition.
“As we have seen, you yourself mentioned, that there is a concern with the Indian community, and only because there’s been large numbers, and we can see that reflected in the way the community votes for Labor at the same time,” Price said after ABC host Patricia Karvelas asked a question about Indian migrants earlier in the interview.
After Ley’s office pushed Price to backtrack, the Coalition’s defence industry spokeswoman issued a statement that said: “Australia maintains a longstanding and bipartisan non-discriminatory migration policy. Suggestions otherwise are a mistake.”
