The rules of political gravity have set in for Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – but the Coalition is still in a dangerous limbo

For much of her short career in Canberra, the usual rules of political gravity have appeared not to apply to Jacinta Nampijinpa Price .

A firebrand, outspoken and unapologetic about almost everything, she went from a first-term backbencher from the Northern Territory to a member of the shadow cabinet in less than a term. Easily the most prominent opponent of the Indigenous voice to parliament , Price used the referendum campaign to build her political brand exponentially.

Loved by conservatives and Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News, Price defected to the Liberal party room after just a few years in the Senate to run for the deputy leadership, unfettered by campaign missteps such as her disastrous promise that a Peter Dutton-led government would “make Australia great again” back in April.