Jacinta Price receives a formal apology from Lisa Wilkinson’s boss at Channel 10

Shadow Indigenous Affairs Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has received a formal apology from Lisa Wilkinson’s bosses at Channel 10 after The Project host struggled to pronounce her name and compared her pre-selection to hiring a black cleaner.

Paramount Executive Vice President of Australia New Zealand Beverley McGarvey personally called Senator Nampijinpa Price to apologize on behalf of the network.

The apology was on behalf of the network, but not from Wilkinson.

Clearly, McGarvey said that the discussion of race did not reflect the values ​​the network stood for and it should not have happened.

Daily Mail Australia understands that Senator Price accepted the apology.

The comments were recorded during a lunch between Wilkinson, Brittany Higgins, her partner David Sharaz and Channel 10 producer Angus Llewellyn, in January 2021.

‘[The Liberal Party] has pre-selected over twenty new and wonderfully diverse and strong female candidates, such as, what’s her name, Nam… Nampinjumba? [sic]. She is an Indigenous woman,” Wilkinson was heard to say in an audio clip obtained by Sky News.

Mr. Sharaz laughed and said, “She obviously got in. It was clearly a safe seat.’

“That’s the point, it was — as soon as I looked at it I was like, ‘Oh, you’re kidding,'” Wilkinson replied.

Mr Llewellyn then joked about the coalition’s pre-selection of Ms Price, saying: ‘Look, we know brown people’.

Mr Sharaz joined in: ‘It’s like I’m not a racist. I have a black friend’ – it’s that argument.’

The ex-project host added, “And our cleaner is black.”

Earlier this morning Ms Price demanded an apology from Wilkinson on Ben Fordham’s 2GB show.

She said she wasn’t surprised by Wilkinson’s “disparaging” remarks, accusing them of being virtuous just pretending to care about Native people.

“I certainly didn’t get to where I am today without hard work, respect from my community and outlining the tough issues,” she said.

Ms Price said the level of arrogance and ignorance of the ‘woke class’ did not surprise her, adding that she thought the most offensive part of the audio was the suggestion that she had been a diversity choice.

“We have a pretty good track record of pre-selecting individuals, based on merit, who happen to be of Indigenous or mixed background,” she said.

‘Only the watchers believe in the choice for diversity.

“I would absolutely expect an apology from the 10 Network, from Lisa Wilkinson herself. That would be good,’ she said.

Senator Price also accused Wilkinson of being out of touch with real issues involving Indigenous Australians

“What would you expect from people who belong to the vigil,” she said.

Ms Price said the audio clip was reminiscent of her interview with Wilkinson’s husband, Peter FitzSimons, in August last year.

FitzSimons had interviewed the Country Liberal senator for the Northern Territory by phone for an article in the Nine newspaper, but Price later accused him of being “rude” and “aggressive” towards her, which he denied.

She claimed that FitzSimons had “imposed” her views on the Indigenous vote on parliament and accused her of “giving a voice to racists.”

“The contempt he had for me in that interview made me feel like he was talking condescendingly to me,” she said.

“I’d like to know who their black friends are.”

The comments from Sharaz, Wilkinson and her producer came before Ms. Higgins’ interview on The Project on Feb. 15, 2021, where she aired bombshell allegations of sexual assault.

The former Liberal Party staffer claims she was raped by Bruce Lehrmann in Parliament House after a night out in 2019 when they were colleagues working for then Defense Secretary Linda Reynolds. Mr. Lehrmann has always denied the allegations.

Fordham asked Ms Price if she thought Chancellor of the Exchequer Katy Gallagher should resign after it was revealed she may have misled Parliament when she denied knowing about Ms Higgins’ allegations before the story broke in June 2021.

Mrs. Reynolds, who was Secretary of Defense at the time, said, “One of your senators told me what you intended to do with the story in my office two weeks earlier.”

Senator Gallagher replied, “Nobody had any knowledge. How dare you.’

Four days before Ms Higgins appeared on The Project in February 2021, Mr Sharaz messaged Ms Higgins: ‘Katy [Gallagher] comes to me with a few questions you need to prepare for… She’s really invested now ha ha.’

He added, “She’s an old friend. We opened a chair together! So you can trust her.’

Later the same day, Mr. Sharaz told Mrs. Higgins, “Katy Gallagher has messaged me. She is angry and wants to help. She has the context. They say they knew something was wrong because they fired Bruce and not you. They avoided a scandal.’

Ms Price said the Chancellor of the Exchequer should ‘absolutely resign’.

“The way she treated my colleague Linda Reynolds is appalling. It’s horrible to see her treated like this.

“She should do the right thing and resign.”

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley told reporters senior government members should clear the air about what they knew and when.

‘The release of text messages and audio recordings has called into question the conduct of some senior Labor ministers and the prime minister himself, regarding whether they chose to weaponize a rape allegation for political purposes’ said Mrs. Ley.

“The credibility of the government is in tatters and so every claim must be validated.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the opposition attack as “bizarre”.

“You had allegations from a Liberal staffer that another Liberal staffer was sexually assaulted in a Liberal minister’s office, and somehow Katy Gallagher has some responsibility for what was going on here,” he said.

“This is bizarre.”