Senator Nampijinpa Price faces political irrelevancy

Senator Nampijinpa Price should learn from former Liberal Prime Minister, John Howard's experience. Remember when he was Opposition leader in 1988, he expressed concerns about the rate of Asian immigration, though not such migration itself. These comments made Howard an easy target for the Hawke Government to attack.

As Howard later admitted in his book (John Howard: Lazarus Rising), it was a clear mistake and "weakened my leadership and authority within the Liberal Party". It contributed in part to his loss of the leadership the following year.

When Howard came back as Opposition leader in 1995, he made sure at his first press conference to stress that "I believe very passionately in an Australia drawn from the four corners of the earth". Howard learnt not just what to say but importantly in a democracy, how to say it. He subsequently went on to win four elections.

Howard also put party and coalition unity first and foremost. Once in office he gave senior ministerial or overseas posts to those who had sabotaged him. Similarly, despite the1987 Joh for Canberra campaign that split the Coalition and spiked Howard's federal election bid that year, he worked hard to get the coalition parties back together and to keep it together during his eleven years in office.

Senator Nampijinpa Price must now decide whether she wants to follow the example of Howard and be a serious long term political player, act as a team member, and contribute to rebuilding the decimated Coalition or just be another political maverick, who after an initial flourish, gradually fades into irrelevancy?