Shadow Indigenous Affairs spokesperson Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has spoken out about what she calls a romanticized “noble, savage” view of Aboriginal culture that traps Indigenous people “in abject poverty” and cycles of violence and abuse.

In a wide-ranging interview with Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday, Senator Price said the Voice referendum has changed Australia, cementing its message for 'Yes' voters and revealing how a clash with high-profile columnist Peter FitzSimons led to precautionary measures being taken at the media.

Senator Price, who led last year's successful campaign against Indigenous Voice to Parliament with Warren Mundine, said embracing mainstream values ​​was the only way forward for Indigenous people.

“For the people of Indigenous descent in this country who are living successful lives, it is because they have absolutely embraced modern Australian culture, which comes from Western culture,” she said.

“Our most marginalized and most dysfunctional people are being told to remain in a culture and way of life that no longer serves them in a modern Western society.”

She argued that 'an activist class' 'one.' ideological framework about everything' which suggested that Aboriginal people should be treated differently through a 'lens of indigenous culture'.

“It's definitely the myth of the noble savage,” she said.

“We see it again and again, especially when you have academics and people who worship traditional culture and are desperate to believe in the writings of people like Bruce Pascoe, who would prefer to compare Indigenous Australians with Europeans.”

Prof. Pascoe's best-known book Dark Emu, which is taught in secondary schools, argues that indigenous Australians at the time of European settlement had much more advanced farming, housing and cooking techniques than previously thought.

The best-selling work, which was the basis for an ABC documentary, is controversial, with some leading anthropologists and archaeologists saying the evidence it presents is weak and selective.

Senator Price believes a mythologized past is hindering the future of Indigenous people.

“It's really a romanticized version of what the academics and those who live in the big big cities think culture is,” she said.

'Everything is completely romanticized and when that happens, those who suffer the most are still ignored.

“The reason we are not making progress is because many of those with a modicum of power are perpetuating this narrative without treating Indigenous Australians as Australians.

'It is the easy way to shift the blame, and with it the agency and responsibility, from the lives of our vulnerable. We need to stop doing that and that is why I argue that we should serve Australians based on need and not race.”

Senator Price believed that October's Voice referendum, which saw more than 60 per cent of voters reject the constitutionally enshrined advisory body, showed that the average Australian “understands what is actually going on”.

“I am incredibly grateful for the common sense approach taken by the majority of Australians,” she said.

“I am grateful that we do not have a nation that will be permanently divided along the lines that would be voted into our Constitution.

“For a long time you have been vilified for raising the truth about the situation, so the referendum results have given Australians the opportunity to be more honest in addressing these issues.

“They stand up and say, 'I don't believe in that nonsense anymore.'

She said ordinary Aussies wanted to help indigenous Australians but knew “that the path we're on hasn't worked and it won't work in the future.”

The result also gave the Northern Territory Senator the confidence to 'continue the work I want to continue and a mandate to conduct an inquiry into how funding is being spent for the betterment of our marginalised'.

“I think the Australian people have shown that they are in favor of that,” she said.

'They are also in favor of a Royal Commission into the Sexual Abuse of Indigenous Children to effectively address the concerns at the outset.'

She said such a commission should delve into “what is causing the high levels of violence, the high levels of neglect and abuse of our children and our women.”

The senator also backed Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's pledge to cut funding to the Environmental Defenders Office, a legal group that challenges fossil fuel projects and will receive $8.2 million from the Commonwealth over four years .

'I feel I am an Indigenous person in the NT and a Traditional Owner myself, and know many others. “Many traditional owners are being robbed of the opportunity for economic independence through projects like the Barossa project there,” she said.

The Barossa Gas Project, which is opposed by the Environmental Defenders Office, would drill for gas in the seas off the Northern Territory.

Senator Price said well-meaning Yes voters needed to understand that Indigenous people had to be their own saviors.

“Yes voters really thought they would make a difference by voting 'Yes,' but sometimes we have to understand that we have to find our own way,” she said.

'Doing good can often be more harmful than actually letting someone fall and getting back up themselves.'

Human rights organization Amnesty International advises against calling someone an Aboriginal on its website, even if they are Aboriginal.

'Aboriginal' is generally seen as insensitive because it has racist connotations from Australia's colonial past and lumps people from different backgrounds together,” the website said.

Senator Price said she was not offended by what she was called.

“I don't mind being called Aboriginal, but I prefer a proud Australian,” she said.

“I'm also happy to be called a blackfella.”

The senator's staff began recording interactions with the media following the bitter fallout from an interview she did with Voice supporter Peter FitzSimons shortly after she was elected to Parliament in 2022.

Senator Price claimed the left-wing author was 'rude' and 'aggressive' and the pair got into a shouting match, which FitzSimons denied, with both sides saying they had witnesses to back up their account of the conversation.

Daily Mail Australia later obtained angry text messages that FitzSimons exchanged with the Country Liberal Senator, who threatened legal action if she did not withdraw her claims.

Senator Price, for her part, told him to stop “bullying her” and later urged FitzSimons to release the recording of the interview so the public could make a decision.

The recording was not released and no legal action was taken.

A heated clash in the Senate in the dead of night proved to leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price that ‘everything is in play’ when it comes to what policies Aboriginal Voice to Parliament will make representations on.  

Labor’s Agriculture Minister Murray Watt was grilled until 4am about the powers of the Aboriginal advisory body last Friday.

Senators Nampijinpa Price and Michaelia Cash peppered him with a range of questions about the scope of the body if Australia were to vote Yes at the referendum later this year.

Ms Nampijinpa Price told Daily Mail Australia the altercation amplified her concerns about the Voice when Senator Anthony Chisholm – who was relieving Mr Watt while he took a bathroom break – was stumped on a ‘very simple question’.

‘I asked if Aboriginal Australians are Australian citizens. He turned to advisors for that question, which is a pretty simple question,’ she said.

Ms Nampijinpa Price said the point she was trying to make is that ‘there is no policy issue that doesn’t impact Indigenous Australians, or one that impacts us differently’.

‘And that’s the word that concerns me most – differently. That we are being treated differently based on our racial heritage.’

In the midst of the hours-long exchange, Mr Watt provided what might the most comprehensive overview of the powers of the Voice to Parliament of any government official yet.

He’d earlier been slammed by Ms Cash, who said: ‘If you cannot tell the Australian people… the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples what this government means by ”matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples”, then, quite frankly, I say: ”Shame on you”.’

And Ms Nampijinpa Price said: ‘Your answers are as clear as mud. All I’d like to know is: is the Voice restricted in making representations?’

Mr Watt said Labor has no intention to narrow the remit of the advisory body.

He said the government instead has ‘confidence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to prioritise the work… and work out for themselves what are priority issues’.

The advisory body will have freedom to decide what issues ‘affect them differently to other people in the Australian community’.

‘They don’t need me to tell on that. With respect, they don’t need you to tell them that.

‘I reckon they’ve got the smarts to be able to work that out for themselves, and I think we should listen to them.’

Mr Watt said it is ‘not for me or any member of the government to dictate to the Voice what it can and can’t provide advice on’.

But he added that it is ‘not the intention that the Voice would make representations on every single thing governments are considering or developing’.

He further detailed some examples in which the Voice could advise on, should the committee members deem it necessary. 

‘It can proactively make representations if it were to decide, for instance, that addressing the high levels of incarceration of Indigenous people was a priority and if they had some ideas about what could be done differently to reduce the rate of incarceration,’ he said.

‘If it had ideas about how we could improve the standard of housing that many First Nations people live in in Australia, then it could make those representations.

‘The parliament and the executive government, if considering actions on those issues, could seek advice, but it is up to the Voice to decide what it does and doesn’t want to get involved in.’ 

Ms Nampijinpa Price later told Daily Mail Australia this should be cause for concern for the general public. 

She claimed conflicting visions for the scope of the Voice within the referendum working group and government had sparked concerns that a Yes vote would constitute a logistical nightmare.

The Country Liberal Senator for the Northern Territory argued there is nothing ‘that won’t be on the table for consideration’, despite assurances otherwise.

When Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney told the House of Representatives that changing the date of Australia Day wouldn’t be in the remit of the advisory body, Ms Nampijinpa Price was shocked. 

‘She cannot say that,’ Ms Nampijinpa Price said. 

The wording of the amendment – which will become constitutionally enshrined if the majority of Australians in the majority of states vote Yes in the referendum this year – does not limit the scope of the advisory body, she said.

‘Nothing that the government currently says can actually be confirmed. Unless there is a specific list that is pre-determined by the parliament that are ”no go” areas… there is no way we can say that something is off the table.

‘Everything is in play.’  

Ms Nampijinpa Price pointed to the differences already in the language of members of government and the referendum working group.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has assured the public this is a ‘modest’ request which will not impact the lives of most Australians, but make a world of difference to the nation’s most vulnerable.

He said Australians will be afforded a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ to improve the lives of First Nations people at the referendum, to be held between October and December. 

‘Where’s the downside here?’ he asked. ‘What are people risking here? From my perspective this is all upside.’

After years of doing things ‘for’ Aboriginal people, often with the best of intentions, the PM said a Voice to Parliament would allow Indigenous people to take the front seat on matters crucial to them.

Meanwhile the likes of Thomas Mayo and Aunty Pat Anderson have been boasting of the power a Voice to Parliament will bring.

Mr Mayo said a constitutional Voice will give Indigenous people a platform to ‘negotiate’ with the Commonwealth on their ‘obligations’.

‘A constitutionally enshrined Voice is important to establish to use the truth to support treaty negotiations,’ he said, detailing a desire for reparations for Indigenous people, ‘rent’ being paid to live on Australian land and the abolishment of ‘harmful colonial institutions’.

And Aunty Pat said a Yes vote will give ‘the mandate of the Australian people’, noting ‘yes, it has to have some power’.

Ms Nampijinpa Price argues the reality of the matter is that nobody truly knows the truth. 

‘If a committee that has been put together to give direction so far are already speaking a different language to the government, you can foresee that a Voice would be made up of individuals who all have their own ideas.

‘Who knows if at some point those members… are prepared to use the full power of the Voice to litigate in the High Court against decisions being made.’ 

Mr Watt, in the Senate at midnight on Friday, insisted litigation would not take place because there will be ‘no constitutional duty to consult the Voice’. 

The Senate sat until 4am debating details of the Voice.

The PM – along with the official Yes23 campaign – states the Voice to Parliament will be able to make recommendations regarding matters that specifically impact First Nations people. 

But it will have no veto power, nor any assurances that any recommendations made will actually be written into legislation.

Ms Cash asked ‘why we’re even having this debate’ if the government is under ‘no obligation to consider the representations made’.

Mr Watt said: ‘Senator Cash, you might have been part of a government that wouldn’t listen to Indigenous people or a body like a voice, but I’m certainly part of a government that intends to. We won’t necessarily accept everything the Voice recommends but we’d certainly be pretty keen to listen.’

A Voice to Parliament was a direct recommendation from the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

But Ms Nampijinpa Price told the Senate ‘the government needs to understand that 1,200 invite-only participants is not representative of the over 800,000 Indigenous Australians in this country.  

‘You keep attempting to convince the Australian people that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people wholeheartedly support this statement. 

‘No other race of Australian people are treated in this way. 

‘To suggest that 0.03 per cent of the population of Indigenous Australians putting their signature to this document is a fair representation of Indigenous Australians and our views, as far as I’m concerned, is utterly disrespectful.’

Shadow Indigenous Affairs minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has demanded an apology from Lisa Wilkinson after The Project host struggled to pronounce her name and compared her preselection to hiring a black cleaner. 

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

‘[The Liberal Party] has preselected over twenty new and wonderfully diverse and strong female candidates like, and what’s her name, Nam… Nampinjumba? [sic]. She’s an Indigenous woman,’ Wilkinson could be heard saying in an audio clip obtained by Sky News.

Mr Sharaz then laughed and said: ‘She clearly got in. Clearly it was a safe seat.’

‘That’s the thing, it was – as soon as I looked at it I thought, ‘Oh, you’re joking,” Wilkinson replied.

Mr Llewellyn then joked about the Coalition preselecting Ms Price, saying: ‘See, we know brown people’.

Mr Sharaz joined in on the quip, saying, ‘It’s like, ‘I’m not racist. I have a black friend.’ It’s that argument.’

The ex-Project host then added: ‘And our cleaner’s black.’

Ms Price told Ben Fordham that she wasn’t surprised by the ‘derogatory’ comments made by Wilkinson, who she accused of virtue signalling simply to pretend she cared about Indigenous people.

‘I certainly didn’t get to where I am without hard work, respect from my community and outlining the hard issues,’ she told 2GB radio on Friday morning.

Ms Price said the level of arrogance and ignorance shown by the ‘woke class’ didn’t surprise her, adding the most offensive part of the audio was the suggestion that she had been a diversity pick in the Coalition. 

‘We have a pretty bloody good track record on preselecting individuals, on merit, who happen to be Indigenous or mixed background,’ she said.

‘It’s only the woke who believe in the diversity pick.’

‘I would absolutely expect an apology from the 10 network, from Lisa Wilkinson herself. That would be the decent thing,’ she said.

Senator Price said Wilkinson was living in an ivory tower and was far removed from real issues pertaining to Indigenous Australians 

‘What would you expect from individuals who belong to the woke,’ she told 2GB. 

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 via telephone for a Nine newspaper article – but Price later accused the left-wing journalist of being ‘rude’ and ‘aggressive’ towards her, which he denied.

She claimed FitzSimons had ‘imposed’ his view on her about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and accused her of ‘giving racists a voice’.

‘The contempt he had for me in that interview, I felt like he was talking to me in a condescending manner,’ she told 2GB on Friday. 

‘I would like to know who their black friends are.’

The comments made by Sharaz, Wilkinson, and her producer took place before Ms Higgins’ interview on The Project on February 15, 2021, where she aired bombshell accusations of sexual assault.

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

Fordham asked Ms Price whether she thought Finance Minister 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 back in June, 2021. 

Ms Reynolds, who was the defence minister at the time, said: ‘I was told by one of your senators two weeks before about what you were intending to do with the story in my office, two weeks before.’

Senator Gallagher replied: ‘No-one 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] is going to come to me with some 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 Ms Higgins: ‘Katy Gallagher messaged me. She’s angry and wants to help. She’s got the context. Says they knew something was wrong because they fired Bruce and not you. They avoided a scandal.’

Ms Price said the finance minister should ‘absolutely be resigning’. 

‘The way she has treated my colleague Linda Reynolds has been atrocious. It has been horrible to watch her be treated that way. 

‘She should do the decent thing and resign.’

It comes as Anthony Albanese and other Labor heavyweights this week were forced to deny they colluded with Wilkinson and Ms Higgins while in Opposition to ‘weaponise’ the sexual assault allegations.

But a trove of leaked text messages on Wednesday between Mr Sharaz and Ms Higgins appear to show the couple had ‘direct contact’ with those at the highest levels of the Labor Party.

Wilkinson had claimed during the lunch Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek were ‘friendly MPs’ who ‘could fire questions in Question Time’ regarding the rape allegations.

While Mr Sharaz said: ‘I have a friend in Labor, Katy Gallagher on the Labor side, who will probe and continue it going.

‘So sitting week, the story comes out, they have to answer questions at Question Time, it’s a mess for them.’

With a whirlwind of controversy surrounding Wilkinson since the recordings were made public, she has embarked on a mass social media blocking spree to mute her critics amid calls for her to hand back her Logie for the Ms Higgins interview.

‘If I was in her position, I would definitely have offered to hand the Logie back,’ Sky News Australia contributor Prue MacSween told Daily Mail Australia.

‘Journalists are supposed to remain objective, not driven by their own agendas. Clearly this became much more for Lisa than a scoop. 

‘No journalist should seek to insert themselves or become the story.

‘But Lisa was ‘feeding the beast’ with her involvement in the women’s protest outside Parliament House and the #MeToo political theme that drove this whole storyline. 

‘I would not like my professional ethics questioned as hers now are.’

Veteran entertainment journalist Peter Ford claimed Wilkinson had crossed a line by feeding Ms Higgins politically-loaded lines to say in the interview. 

‘It’s a fine line,’ Ford told Sunrise host Natalie Barr. 

‘But I generally think when someone says, ‘I don’t want to put words in your mouth’, that is exactly what they do want to do.

‘Certainly Walkley Awards can be revoked. I can’t think of an example where a Logie Award has been revoked but time will tell.

‘I guess people are waiting to see how the ongoing situation plays out.’

The Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen branded Wilkinson’s interview with Ms Higgins ‘shoddy journalism’ in an op-ed and said she should return her Logie now.

‘The proper thing to do would be for Wilkinson to hand in her Logie for her Higgins interview,’ she wrote.

‘That interview has been nothing but trouble for her, for the justice system, for good journalism and for people who deserved to be treated better.’

Many now claim Wilkinson has hit back at her critics by blocking them online, effectively silencing them by censoring their comments from her timeline.

Among those hit in the spree is former South Australia senator Cory Bernardi, who tweeted: ‘Proud to be a member of the ‘blocked by Lisa Wilkinson’ club.’

Scores have posted their own notifications that they have also been blocked by Wilkinson, with one adding: ‘Welcome – there’s plenty of good people in this club.’

Another added that the TV star and her columnist husband Peter FitzSimons had both been muting their opponents.

‘She and her hubby are very busy today with limiting their Twitter audience to yes-people,’ they said.

‘Where great leaders surround themselves with no-people to promote debate to reach high achievements, poor leaders surround themselves with yes-people to silence debate.’

One posted: ‘Lisa Wilkinson blocked me, yet I have never ever Tweeted to her. 

‘Clearly she is blocking anyone that says anything negative about Brittany Higgins or people who refuse to worship Anthony Albanese and Labor.’

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Wilkinson for comment. 

EXCLUSIVE: Read the texts between Lisa Wilkinson’s husband Peter FitzSimons and Jacinta Price that reveal the REAL fallout after the Liberal senator’s interview with the left-wing columnist – and why their VERY different backgrounds matter

Peter FitzSimons and Jacinta Price both furiously insisted they had witnesses backing their accounts of an August 2022 phone interview in which the new senator claims the left-wing author was ‘rude’ and ‘aggressive’ towards her.

Daily Mail Australia has obtained the furious text messages FitzSimons exchanged with the Country Liberals senator for the Northern Territory in the wake of the interview being published in the Nine newspapers.

Ms Price has gone public saying she felt FitzSimons – the husband of TV host Lisa Wilkinson – ‘imposed’ his view on her during their chat about the merits and faults of the Voice to Parliament. 

In a Facebook post after the article was published, Senator Price alleged FitzSimons ‘accused me of giving racists a voice but that wasn’t printed’, and later told media he was ‘aggressive’ and ‘rude’ and shouted at her.

FitzSimons strongly denied her claims – as did his boss, who tweeted he had listened to the interview – with FitzSimons texting asking her to remove the Facebook post, which she did.

The full text exchange between the pair shows they both claimed to have witnesses to the phone call as they argued over what happened.

‘Senator, I urge you to withdraw these defamatory accusations, as you know it is nonsense,’ FitzSimons wrote.

Senator Price hit back: ‘We did yell at each other. I’d like a copy of the interview… you did accuse me of empowering racists.’ 

FitzSimons insisted there was ‘not a single raised voice on either side’ but she replied: ‘I recall I had to yell, as did my chief of staff, who was present while you were on speaker.’    

The author responded by saying: ‘I have a witness at my end as well. But it doesn’t matter. It is all recorded.’

FitzSimons again asked her to withdraw her allegations before Senator Price ended the argument by replying: ‘Please stop bullying me. I don’t ever want to communicate with you again.’ 

Senator Price and FitzSimons originally chatted to discuss Anthony Albanese’s proposal to change the constitution to establish a Voice to Parliament, a group of Aboriginal people that would advise politicians on policies for Indigenous people.

FitzSimons is in favour while Senator Price is against, believing it will not help improve the lives of Aboriginal people. 

After FitzSimons denied being rude to Senator Price, she urged him to release the recording of the interview so the public could make up their own minds.

‘I’m quite happy for him to release the recordings if that will just settle things,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘It’s been a bit of a drain and there’s obviously a lot of more important issues that I want to focus on and get to work on as a new senator. It’s been a not-so-welcome distraction,’ she said of their dispute.

‘My idea of more respectful and effective journalism is to have conversations about issues without having the opinions of a journalist imposed upon you and being made to feel as though you’re somehow wrong or incorrect.

Senator Price said it is wrong for journalists or commentators to be surprised when an Aboriginal person speaks out against the Voice to Parliament.

‘There has been a racial stereotype created around how Aboriginal Australians think and act and behave and we don’t generalise in that way about white Australians, or Italian Australians or Asia Australians,’ she said.

‘So why should we continually have that way of thinking imposed upon us as Indigenous Australians? Again it is a racial stereotype and I won’t have a bar of it.’

Senator Price said people need to be more accepting of diverse views within the Aboriginal community.

‘The narrative that we are a country of oppressed people and oppressors – we’ve got to get away from that. It’s not helpful, it’s not constructive,’ she said.

‘It provides for a very narrow view of how we are as a diverse bunch of Australians and we’ve got to take it back to basics of what it means to be human.’

Senator Price said the Voice the Parliament is a bad idea because it will entrench the idea that Aboriginal people are all victims.

‘Enshrining it in the Constitution suggests that as a race we’re forever going to be in need of special measures and as a race what somehow defines us is being marginalised,’ she said.

‘But it’s not race that determines our marginalisation – there are those of us of Indigenous heritage who are doing really well, we’re fine and have managed to take advantage of the modern world to live successful lives.’   

FitzSimons said he only confronted Senator Price over ‘mistruths’ and that he gave her views a fair airing his column.

‘What I sought to do was have her correct the record on the nature of our interview, which she partially did by deleting the post, and acknowledging to me I was not shouting,’ he said. 

‘As to suggestions of bullying… simply not true. The senator posted a complete and demonstrable untruth. I called her out on it, and she took down the post.’