Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has lashed former the Project host Lisa Wilkinson after leaked audio emerged of her making “racist” comments and struggling to pronounce the senator’s name.
The audio is part of a recording from the five-hour lunch Wilkinson had with her producer Angus Llewelyn, former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins and her boyfriend David Sharaz before Ms Higgins went public with her rape allegations.
The tape reveals during the lunch, Wilkinson and Mr Sharaz war-gamed which politicians and media personalities could add weight to Ms Higgins’ allegations and the broader issue of misogyny within the Liberal Party.
A leaked part of the clip shows Wilkinson pointing out the party had “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”.
In response, Mr Sharaz 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 said.
Mr Sharaz added: “They’ve been preselected in unwinnable seats.”
Mr Llewellyn joined in with a joke about the Coalition preselecting Ms Price, saying: “See, we know brown people”.
Mr Sharaz followed, “It’s like, ‘I’m not racist, I have a black friend’. It’s that argument.”
“I don’t have his number, though,” Mr Llewellyn said.
Wilkinson closed the chat, saying: “And our cleaner’s black”.
Ms Higgins is not heard engaging in this part of the conversation.
On Friday, Senator Price hit back, demanding Wilkinson apologise to her.
Senator Price said Wilkinson was living in an ivory tower and was far removed from real issues pertaining to Indigenous Australians
“There are the derogatory and racist comments … what would you expect from individuals who belong to the woke,” she told 2GB.
“The Project has never been interested in the view of a conservative Indigenous woman from outback Australia. Not once has it demonstrated interest in the concerns I’ve raised.”
Senator Price said what had offended her the most was Wilkinson’s suggestion she was some sort of diversity pick.
“I would absolutely expect an apology from the 10 network, from Lisa Wilkinson herself. That would be the decent thing,” she said.
“Unfortunately this woke culture allows racism to exist in plain sight.”
Senator Price also joined the chorus calling for Senator Katy Gallagher to resign from parliament, after an audio clip of that same five-hour pre-interview recording raised questions about when the now finance minister first found out about Ms Higgins’ intention to go public with her allegation.
In June 2021, Ms Gallagher claimed “no one had any knowledge, how dare you”, after Ms Reynolds said she had been tipped off by a Labor senator that the issue would be raised in Senate Estimates.
This week, text messages leaked to The Australian indicate Senator Gallagher was made aware of The Project interview four days before it aired.
Further texts revealed by Sky News on Thursday between Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz show he told her Senator Gallagher was “really invested’’ in her claims – four days before they were made public.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed in Senator Gallagher on Friday morning, saying she had not mislead parliament.
“What is being suggested here by Peter Dutton … you had allegations by a Liberal staffer that another Liberal staffer had a sexual assault in a Liberal ministers; office and, somehow, Katy Gallagher her has some responsibility for what was going on here? This is bizarre,” he told Channel 7.
Mr Albanese also called for someone in the Coalition to release the Phil Gaetjens inquiry, which then prime minister Scott Morrison commissioned in the wake of the allegations.
“You had a circumstance also where Scott Morrison had an inquiry by Phil Gaetjens, his former chief of staff who was the head of Department and prime minister and cabinet and tell him who knew what in his own office,” Mr Albanese said.
“We still have never, ever seen that report. I mean, for Peter Dutton to talk about transparency frankly is quite farcical here”