Senator Jacinta Price backs nuclear and blames Sussan Ley for stalling decision on Coalition climate policy

Jacinta Nampijimpa Price has used her first public appearance since being dumped from the shadow ministry to take a subtle swipe at Sussan Ley over net zero.

Senator Price told Liberal supporters in Perth that the Coalition’s climate policy was being held up by the Opposition Leader.

“There is a process underway that our leader has put in place which suggests that it’s a 12 month process that we’re taking before we can establish our policies going forward,” she said.

“It would be great if it was a lot sooner. We could have a Federal election triggered in August of 2027. It’s not that far away, really. And I think pretty soon we’re going to see Albanese try to legislate a target of net zero by 2035.

“So I imagine that conversation and that debate is going to occur sooner rather than later, and we’ll have to form a position on that.”

She backed nuclear power as “the way to go”.

“It is utter nonsense that we can’t fast-track nuclear for our country,” Senator Price said.

“Man, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of a sudden the Prime Minister has a brain fart and says, you know what, let’s pretend like this is our policy and then go ahead and adopt it.”

Senator Price was the star guest at a Liberal fundraiser at an Indian Community Centre in Willetton on Thursday night, the day after she was sacked by Ms Ley for refusing to endorse her leadership or apologise for controversial comments about Indian migration.

Senior WA Liberal Nick Goiran was the other guest speaker, but he described Senator Price as the “main course” and called Labor’s calls for the event to be cancelled “absolutely ridiculous”.

“The left have done everything inconceivable to make sure that tonight doesn’t go ahead,” Mr Goiran said.

“The delicious irony in it all is that unbeknownst to all those individuals I had decided some weeks ago, when I was given this invitation, that I would talk about freedom of association.

“We will defend this fundamental freedom of association, as we will defend those other fundamental rights, but we can’t do it without your support.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called Senator Price’s appearance at the Indian community centre, days after linking migrants to Labor votes, “extraordinary” and “insensitive”.

In front of an audience of about 500 Liberal supporters, she vowed to make the most of the “freedom” of being a back-bencher.

“It’s been a week of, certainly, I’m putting it down to lessons learned, experience,” she said.

“So I know have the freedom of being a backbencher. It’s a new found freedom that I’m very grateful for, because there are a number of issues that we need to be vocal about.”

She nominated a need to boost defence spending, return to “wonderful, Australian, values” and slow down mass migration.

“I’ll continue to have those conversations, because it’s important to have one on one conversations, not let the left wing media drive the narrative,” Senator Price said.

“More importantly, we should be driving the narrative.”