Starting at about 8.20 pm (NT time) last night the ABC broadcast an interview by Sarah Ferguson and Bridget Brennan with NT Senator Jacinta Price after the Coalition’s devastating – to put it mildly – loss at the 2025 Australian Federal election.
Make of the interview what you will but I think it was a complete train wreck that speaks volumes about Price’s unsuitability for politics generally and – with plenty of evidence already in the bag – should finally put paid to the ridiculous claims for her proposed ascension to prime ministership.
I don’t carry a flag for Sarah Ferguson but do recognise her as a tenacious TV journalist that any interviewee needs to be well prepared for. You know, run through a moot question-and-answer session; remind the subject to take a breath every now and then; listen – and respond to – the questions and of course; don’t talk over, under or all around the interviewer.
Media Training 101.
Price was far from prepared and she should have at least had a ready-rolled response to what would be Ferguson’s first order of questions that tried to tease out a link between Price’s foolish adoption of Trumpist tropes, the Coalition’s comprehensive election failure and the loss of Dutton’s seat.
Price should also have known that talking over and across Ferguson wouldn’t make her go away. After all, this was the ABC, not some tame media muppet at Sky TV after dark or a Murdoch media stenographer.
To Ferguson’s credit she lets Price ramble on from around the 2 minute mark but this was a precious opportunity that Price wasted – there isn’t much more valuable political real estate than prime time on the national broadcaster on a Federal election night!
Price smothered that puppy in pabulum and platitudes.
Somewhere around this point Ferguson had had enough and handed off to Bridget Brennan for the rest of the interview.
Price never did get around to answering Ferguson’s first question: “Peter Dutton tonight has lost his seat. With your embrace of Donald Trump “Make Australia Great Again,” are you part of the reason for that loss?“
Brennan at least managed to get some (reasonably) straight answers from Price in relation to failures in the Coalition campaign but by this time it was far, far too late.
That train was well off the track and gone, wrecked and in pieces at the bottom of the cliff.
Finally, it is fair to say that Price has an antagonistic mien prone to surface when she’s under pressure from, for example, determined questioning from a forceful journalist like Ferguson.
This can be a particular problem in TV interviews where antagonism can be seen as aggression or worse, but for mine Price shaved that line last evening but didn’t cross it. She merely seemed her usual thin-skinned, smug, self-satisfied self – which can be a problem in itself.
But, what was distinctly odd were the visuals around Price in the broadcast footage, particularly the three men standing to either side.
You can draw your own conclusions about how happy they are to be in front of the camera.
On one side were two of her four sons, one in polo shirt and sweats looking like he’d just come from the gym, the other apparently just out of the mosh-pit, wearing a Megadeath (an American thrash-metal band) baseball cap.
On the other hand was dandy partner Colin Little, all dolled up like a flaneur ready for an evening promenade, pocket-square [who wears pocket-squares these days?] neatly folded into his suit coat pocket.
Now, if you didn’t know that these were Price’s family members the ready and the entirely excusable assumption might be that these were members of a bizarrely-dressed and distinctly unhappy security detail.
Or not.
Sarah Ferguson: Jacinta, Peter Dutton tonight has lost his seat. With your embrace of Donald Trump “Make Australia Great Again,” are you part of the reason for that loss?
Jacinta Price: (after a long pause) Oh, that’s a big call don’t you think? I mean, you sling enough mud in an election it, it sticks, and we did see a prime minister who absolutely misled the Australian people all the way through and was rarely called out for his conduct and I think that’s absolutely deceitful …
Ferguson: … but Jacinta let’s talk about this …
Price: … of him too …
Ferguson: … let’s just talk about this seriously. At a time when Donald Trump was sending shock waves around the world …
Price: … I’m talking about this seriously …
Ferguson: … you … well, it’s not a smear campaign …
Price: … I … unh …
Ferguson: … I want you to address this seriously Jacinta. At a time that Donald Trump was sending shock waves around the world, disturbing …
Price: … so, well, if you don’t think, you don’t think that I’m addressing this seriously, I am addressing this deadly seriously in that if you sling enough mud, it will stick and absolutely, Labor, certainly the media slung enough mud in terms of this particular issue. You made it all about Donald Trump, we really couldn’t care less about the way Donald Trump is governing for America. We were concerned with the way Australia’s been governed under …
Ferguson: … yes, but …
Price: … the Albanese government …
Ferguson: … but Jacinta Price, we all saw you …
Price: … and the situation‘s not going to get any better going, going forward. It’s not going to get any better.
Ferguson: Let’s just talk about this sensibly Jacinta. We saw you wearing a “Make Australia Great Again” [actually it was a Make America Great Again” cap] hat at a time when Donald Trump …
Price: … oh, my goodness …
Ferguson: … was poison to the world. We saw you give a speech in which you used a Donald Trump statement …
Price: … woah, woah, woah, woah …
Ferguson: … ‘Make Australia Great Again,’ So can I come back to the question? Are you partly responsible loss for what …
Price: … okay, can I, can I … okay …
Ferguson: … the Liberal Party has suffered …
Price: … let me come back to the question …
Ferguson: … and Peter Dutton’s loss of his seat?
Price: Let me … let me come back to the question. There’s a whole lot of mud you just slung right there, can I just say. In terms of wanting this country to be great, Donald Trump doesn’t own those four words, right?
There’s a whole lot of mud you just slung right there, can I just say.
In terms of wanting this country to be great, Donald Trump doesn’t own those four words, right?
Because the media can go through your personal Facebook photos and find a picture that was taken in jest at Christmas time and then smear you with it, that is the problem.
That is the issue, that is the smearing that goes on, certainly within the media. Just as you, you’re trying to say, take this seriously, I’m deadly serious about this issue. And what I’m deadly serious about is that here in Lingiari, Aboriginal people are going to continue to be marginalised. The Gap is going to get wider because we take an ideological approach to all of these issues.
And Labor will continue to do that. They’ll invest money in organisations and not listen to the little people on the ground, but I’ll continue to fight for those people who actually want to be heard, those forgotten people where Labor, and, you know, if you want to take things seriously, perhaps send an investigative journalist and watch what occurs in remote polling booths.
The AEC has been alerted to, to this, over and over and do very little to deal with that situation. I urge the ABC, as a taxpayer-funded organisation to go out to remote communities and see for yourself exactly what occurs because I’m deadly serious about the situation.
And, if you think things are bad right now, in terms of cost of living, it’s only going to get worse going forward.
But what I do know is if you sling enough mud in a campaign it sticks. And if you mislead the Australian people over again, that’s what the prime minister has done. That’s what sticks. I mean, it was a huge ask to try and unseat a one-term, err, first-term Prime Minister. It’s only been done in 1931 was the last time obviously.
But believe me you [sic] uh, this doesn’t mean we give up or we back down, we just go harder, and we will learn from the mistakes we’ve made in terms of our campaign.
Losing Peter Dutton is a huge loss, is a huge loss
Losing Peter Dutton is a huge loss, is a huge loss and the Liberal Party will determine what the leadership looks like for their party going forward. But we will absolutely learn from what’s occurred during this campaign.
Bridget Brennan: Senator Price, its Bridget Brennan here, by all accounts this has been a disastrous campaign for you. I’m not putting it down to the media but what went wrong from your perspective.
Price: Uh, well look, I would have to say that certainly, uh, we could have provided our policies sooner to the Australian people, uh, to have a better understanding of what we wanted to do to support Australians better than what the Albanese government has done.
We could have called out his lies earlier on in the piece, instead of, you know … absolutely, we could have done that but we will learn more as we go forward, as to the mistakes we’ve made uh and own those mistakes and make sure that we don’t repeat them going forward.
Because ultimately, uh, it it’s how Australia’s going to go going forward is our greatest concern. But it doesn’t mean we, we stop doing what we’re doing and fighting on behalf of Australians.
Brennan: Tell us what you’re seeing in Solomon tonight.
Price: There seems to be one … first ever in the Territory parliament. But, you know, crime’s a huge issue right throughout the Northern Territory. And that is one where there was obviously the stabbing death of the shop owner in Nightcliff the other week, and, and those issues … a lot of Territorians are doing it bloody tough and they’re feeling like the impacts of things like crime.
a lot of Territorians are doing it bloody tough
So, you know, that is why we’re getting, getting that swing, unh, in terms of Solomon.
Brennan: Alright, Senator Jacinta Nampajinpa Price, thanks for your time tonight.
Price: Thank you.
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