News Corp has mistaken former Greens candidate Lynda-June Coe for Indigenous Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, running a headline wrongly naming Price as a speaker at a pro-Palestine rally in Sydney over the weekend, despite her not being in the country.
The newswire service owned by News Corp, NCA NewsWire, published a story on Saturday afternoon with the headline “Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price attends Sydney pro-Palestine rally”, alongside a quote attributed to Price calling for the pro-Palestinian crowd to “come together” to end colonialism and racism.
It was published alongside a photograph of another Indigenous woman, Wiradjuri activist and academic Lynda-June Coe, who did in fact speak at the rally. Coe shares little in common politically with Price, running unsuccessfully for the NSW Greens in the upper house in the 2023 state election.
The story, attributed to a Brisbane-based reporter, was republished on other sites that utilise content from NCA NewsWire, including the Daily Mail and the West Australian, as well as a range of News Corp mastheads.
Price was not in Australia last week, having travelled to the UK to address the Jordan Peterson-founded Alliance for Responsible Citizenship Conference in London, alongside a slew of other Australian conservative figures.
News Corp and Price were contacted for comment for this story but did not reply in time for publication.
The rallies for Palestine continue to grow around Australian capital cities, with a Sydney rally in Hyde Park on November 4, calling for Israel to leave Gaza, end its ground invasion, allow full humanitarian access to the area and for Australian political leaders to “stop supporting genocide” and cut ties with the “apartheid” state of Israel. The demonstrations have had broad support across progressive circles, including from Jewish groups, unions and student activist groups.
It comes as pressure mounts on Australian political figures to make stronger statements condemning Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip as its aerial bombardment of the area continues, with criticism coming from all sides of the political spectrum, including within the government’s base. A rally was held last week outside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office in Sydney’s inner-west.
