Liberal power broker Alex Hawke has urged Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to formally apologise for comments about the federal government bringing in more Indian migrants because they vote Labor.
"If we're going to have a debate about migration numbers that's fine but we don't single out communities and we certainty don't target Indian communities," Mr Hawke said.
He said he urged the Northern Territory senator to make a social media video because "the way to minimise this was to apologise quickly and to get it out there".
"This was a particularly bad week for these comments" after the flyers at anti-immigration rallies singled out the Indian community, Mr Hawke said.
"The damage is ongoing, I think if an apology was offered early on and just a quick walk back, that would have helped but there's still time and I think the community should hear from her."
Liberals have publicly and privately urged Senator Nampijinpa Price to issue an apology, saying the comments continued to cause brand damage five days after they were made.
But the saga is tearing at the seams internally.
Senator Nampijinpa Price said Mr Hawke "chose instead to berate one of my staff" when he couldn't get hold of her after calling her office.
The NT senator said the Liberal Party's "women problem" was exacerbated when people "don't stand up for women when they are mistreated by our own colleagues".
"(Mr Hawke) even pressed my staff that if I did not comply with his requests, I may end up like another female member of the coalition, who I won't name," she said.
Mr Hawke said he had a one to two-minute conversation with a staff member but rejected the characterisation and denied he implied there would be repercussions for her political career if she didn't apologise.
But pushed on whether the reference was to Liberal Senator Jane Hume, who was demoted to the backbench after the bruising election defeat, Mr Hawke said, "I'm not going to go into what I discussed back and forth".
"She said a lot of things and I said a lot of things and they're not for publication."
Senator Hume said any breach of parliament's standards needed to be reported.
"I would hope that the Liberal Party has moved on from some of the bad behaviour in the past but that's going to be up to the leader to demonstrate what behaviour and standards she expects of the people that work around her," she told Sky News.
"I would hope that we can move past this very quickly, let's be honest, the Australian public expect more of us."
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has been in damage control, putting up social media videos supporting the Indian community and touring Sydney's Little India to speak with community leaders before holding a roundtable on Monday.
Ms Ley's office said she wouldn't comment on private conversations when asked if she had spoken to Mr Hawke or Senator Nampijinpa Price.
Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic, who was among the coalition contingent at Little India, told ABC Radio people "were upset and they were hurt by the comments, and that they didn't consider the comments to be true".
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