Melissa Price (politician)

In December 2017, Price was appointed Assistant Minister for the Environment in the Turnbull government, under environment minister Josh Frydenberg.[9] During the 2018 Liberal leadership spills, she reportedly voted for incumbent prime minister Malcolm Turnbull against Peter Dutton in the first vote.[10] She told the Australian Financial Review that "a change of leader would be political suicide".[11] Following Turnbull's withdrawal, she voted for Scott Morrison against Dutton in a second vote days later.[12] Price was subsequently appointed Minister for the Environment in the Morrison government and elevated to cabinet.[2]

As environment minister, Price attended the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poland. The Australian reported that she had met with state environment ministers prior to the conference and proposed a strategy that "would put the onus on the states to lead environmental policy", but that she "failed to secure agreement on a national action plan on climate change yesterday after the states rejected the wording".[13] In March 2019, Price attributed bushfires in Western Australia and Victoria to climate change. In the lead-up to the 2019 federal election, she was "front and centre of Scott Morrison's push to highlight his government’s environmental records and policies including a $3.3bn Climate Solutions Fund and a commitment to Snowy Hydro 2.0".[14]

In April 2019, Price gave ministerial approval to an environmental management plan for the Adani Group's controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland.[15] Her final approval came several days after she was advised by her department to approve the plan, delayed in order to seek further detail about the mine's impact on groundwater. As a result "a delegation of Queensland MPs and the Prime Minister met over concerns that Ms Price was refusing to sign off on the plan in the face of intense lobbying by federal Liberal MPs in Victoria".[16] A few days later, Price gave ministerial approval to the Yeelirrie uranium mine in Western Australia. She had previously stated that she would wait for the outcome of a Supreme Court of Western Australia case on state government approval of the mine before granting her own approval.[17]

Following the Coalition's re-election at the 2019 federal election, Price was removed from cabinet but retained in the outer ministry as Minister for Defence Industry.[2] This was widely reported as a demotion,[18] with the Australian Financial Review stating that she had been "unable to comfortably answer media questions about her portfolio".[19] In her first speech in the portfolio, delivered to an Australian Industry Group meeting, she stated that she wanted to "maximise the involvement and success of Australian SMEs" in the defence industry.[20] In March 2021, Morrison reappointed Price to cabinet, seeking to increase the proportion of women in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.[21] She was appointed to the Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise Governance Committee, a subcommittee of the National Security Committee.[22] Price served in these roles until May 2022, following the appointment of the Albanese ministry.

Price caused controversy in her role as Environment Minister by allegedly telling Anote Tong, the former president of Kiribati and climate change advocate, "I know why you're here. It is for the cash. For the Pacific it's always about the cash. I have my chequebook here. How much do you want?"[23]