Canberra: Politics in Australia has heated up on the issue of Indian immigrants with prime minister Anthony Albanese seeking an apology from right-wing opposition lawmaker Jacinta Nampijinpa Price for her comments against one of the country’s largest minority groups.
Price had made her comments following nationwide anti-immigrant protests that partly blamed Indians for rising cost-of-living pressures.
In a radio interview last week, she had said that a large influx of Indian migrants had been allowed into the country to vote for Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party.
“There is a concern with the Indian community, and only because there have been large numbers. And we can see that reflected in the way that the community votes for Labor at the same time,” Price said.
Price’s comments sparked anger among the Australian-Indian community, with calls for an apology coming from both the public and members of her own party.
“People in the Indian community are hurting,” the Australian prime minister said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC on Tuesday.
“The comments that the senator made are not true and, of course, she should apologise for the hurt that has been caused, and her own colleagues are saying that,” he added.
As on 2023, there were 845,800 Indian-born people living in Australia. The population has more than doubled over the previous decade. Hundreds of thousands more born in Australia claim some form of Indian ancestry.
Even as tensions rose, the New South Wales state government convened a meeting of community groups on Tuesday to address increasing anti-Australian-Indian sentiment.
“Today we stand together with the Australian-Indian community to say unambiguously that the sort of racist rhetoric and divisive false claims we have seen over the last couple of weeks have no place in our state or country,” NSW Premier Chris Minns said.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has said that it is engaging with Canberra over the rise in anti-Indian sentiment following the protests.
