Major move for outspoken senator
Written by admin on July 29, 2024
Northern Territory senator and the Coalition’s face of the No campaign Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is set to write a memoir slated for release in February 2025.
Co-written with Sue Smethurst, the book, Matters of the Heart, will detail the conservative Country Liberal senator’s rise in politics, how she overcame adversity and her upbringing in Australia’s top end in Darwin and Alice Springs.
The book, which will be published by HarperCollins Publishers Australia, will also document her family’s first contact with European settlement, the “clash of cultures” that followed and their experience with domestic violence.
Senator Price, who is the Coalition’s Indigenous affairs spokeswoman, has often described herself as a proud Warlpiri-Celtic woman, crediting her father’s Anglo heritage, and her mother Bess Nungurrayi Price, a Warlpiri- woman.
The politician said she hoped the book would allow people to contextualise her politics, after she emerged as one of the most influential voices in the government’s unsuccessful referendum campaign for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
“Many people were introduced to me through my role in the No campaign during the Voice referendum, but media appearances and click-bait headlines are never the best way to get to know a person,” she said.
“By telling my history and the stories of those who came before me, my hope is that people will gain a fuller understanding of who I truly am, why I fight for what I fight for, and what really matters to my heart.”
Prior to entering the senate on the number one ticket position with the Country Liberal Party in 2022, Senator Price served on the Alice Springs local council as the deputy mayor.
She has been critical of “virtue signalling” when it comes to Indigenous issues, and campaigned on issues related to housing, women’s safety and increasing economic access for Aboriginal peoples.
Notably in her 2023 National Press Conference address, which took place prior to the Voice referendum, Senator Price said she didn’t believe colonisation had negatively affected Indigenous Australians, with Indigenous advocacy and community groups criticising her remarks.
The book’s co-author Sue Smethurst described the senator’s life as one that’s been “been shaped by hardship, tragedy and challenges that are beyond what most of us could imagine”.
“She is a woman of great resolve and courage, with a love of Australia that is deeply embedded in everything she does, qualities recognised well beyond Canberra,” said Ms Smethurst.
“Jacinta is, and will be, one of the most influential political figures of our time, a
woman who is already making her mark, and it is a joy to discover the road that led her there.”
Published Mary Rennie said Senator Price’s memoir would appeal to a wide range of Australians whether or not they are familiar with politics.
“Price. I know that I am not alone in wondering what influences have shaped her resolve and resilience; how she straddles two apparently different worlds; where she draws her strength from; and what her vision for the future is,” she said.
“Her many political admirers will rush out to get this book, but Jacinta’s story is so moving and momentous, it will appeal to thousands of people who love an emotional story of overcoming adversity and rising to be one of the most important voices in the nation.”
