Australian PM Anthony Albanese criticises Opposition’s anti-India jibe, seeks apology

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday said that a right-wing opposition senator should apologise for remarks implying that too many Indians were migrating to the country.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a centre-right Liberal Party senator, made the comments targeting one of Australia’s largest minority communities in the wake of nationwide anti-immigrant protests, which partly blamed Indians for rising cost-of-living pressures.

In a radio interview last week, she suggested that a large number of Indians had been allowed to migrate to Australia to vote for Albanese's Labor Party.

Her comments fuelled angst among the Australian-Indian community, and they called for an apology.

Reacting to her remarks, PM Albanese told a US broadcasting media that people in the Indian community are hurting. He also said that she should apologise for the hurt that has been caused.

Notably, according to the Department of Home Affairs of Australia, at the end of June 2023, a total of 8,45,800 Indian-born people were living in Australia. This is more than twice the number as compared to the statistics of 2013, which was 3,78,480. After the United Kingdom, the Indian-born population is the second-largest migrant community in Australia.