A war of words between Liberal firebrands has sparked concerns the party continues to marginalise the Indian community following disparaging comments.

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,” Hawke said.

He said he had 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, 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 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.

Price said 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 Liberals’ “women problem” was exacerbated when people “don’t stand up for women when they are mistreated by our own colleagues”.

“[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.

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 Price’s 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 this year’s bruising election defeat, 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“She said a lot of things and I said a lot of things and they’re not for publication,” he said.

Hume said any breach of parliament’s standards should 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 Harris Park, also known as Little India, in western Sydney to speak to community leaders before holding a roundtable on Monday.

Ley’s office was asked if she had spoken to Hawke or Price but said she wouldn’t comment on private conversations.

Liberal senator Maria Kovacic, who was among the Coalition contingent at Harris Park on Sunday, told ABC Radio people “were upset and they were hurt by the comments, and that they didn’t consider the comments to be true”.

-AAP