Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called for an apology from opposition Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price after her remarks suggesting an unsustainable number of Indians were migrating to the country, sparked public backlash.
Price, who represents the centre-right Liberal Party, made her comments during a recent radio interview, suggesting that a surge in Indian migrants was orchestrated to benefit Albanese’s Labor Party at the polls. She also linked the rising Indian immigration with national cost-of-living concerns.
“There is a concern with the Indian community – and only because there’s been large numbers. And we can see that reflected in the way that the community votes for Labor at the same time,” Reuters quoted Price as saying.
Price’s remarks followed a series of anti-immigrant protests nationwide, some of which specifically blamed Indians for adding stress to the country’s economic challenges.
Her comments caused anger amongst the Australian-Indian community, prompting deamands of apology and retraction frm both within her own party and the minority community.
Albanese Asks Price To Apologise For ‘Hurting’ Indian Community
In an interview with state broadcast ABC on Tuesday, Albanese said, “People in the Indian community are hurting.”
“The comments are not true that the senator made and, of course, she should apologise for the hurt that has been caused, and her own colleagues are saying that,” he said.
According to government statistics, 8,45,800 Indian-origin people were living in Australia in 2023, more than doubling in the last decade. Thousands of others are born in Australia and have some form of Indian ancestry.
New South Wales government on Tuesday held a meeting of community groups to discuss what it called the rising 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.
Meanwhile, India’s foreign ministry reported ongoing engagement with Australian officials to address concerns about anti-Indian sentiment following the protests.
