Sharri Markson:
For more on this, I’m joined now by the Institute of Public Affairs Chief Economist Adam Creighton, who of course had that big exclusive interview. Adam, good to see you again and congratulations on the scoop that made news on every single media outlet today. Were you surprised just how frank Philip Lowe was when it came to criticism of the Albanese government’s mishandling of the economy?
Adam Creighton:
Yes, I certainly was. That’s probably the longest interview a former Reserve Bank governor has ever given by a factor of five. And the comments he made were, in that context, fairly extreme. He was rather scathing of economic management pretty much on every front as you outlined it. And when I saw the transcript, I thought as a former journalist, gosh, there’s so many splashes here, but the journalists had to keep it all in the one article. So yeah, as you pointed out, whether it was tax or immigration or energy or deficit spending, inflation, it was scathing. But I think the central point that most of the papers wrote about was the deficit spending and the inflationary impact of that.
I mean, Chalmers is out there saying that the underlying cash balance has slightly improved, and it has by a few billion dollars, but the bigger picture is that the headline balance is about minus $60 billion this year, and that is a huge injection of new money into the economy. And of course that is inflationary. And that’s why we have, as you just said, we have the highest underlying inflation rate pretty much in every country in the world that is developed. I mean, in the Eurozone, in the US, in the UK, in New Zealand and Canada, those figures all have a two in front of them. So ours has a three and it’s almost four. So it is rather embarrassing.
Sharri Markson:
He also made some fascinating remarks about energy because I read the transcript of course today. He was open to nuclear, but very critical of the cost of energy as well. Tell us what he said.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah. Well, yes, that’s right. I mean, he did say that the nuclear ban was rather silly, which it obviously is. I don’t think there’s any other country in the G20 that bans nuclear energy outright, especially one that orders nuclear submarines. So that was obviously a very good point. But yes, he was also critical of the unreliability of Australia’s energy system. And I thought that was very interesting. And of course the cost too. He said it’s both becoming increasingly unreliable and also more expensive, and of course that has a huge inflationary effect throughout the economy, certainly a much bigger effect than the Iran war does on our inflation. That’s certainly true. So yes, look, I think he was… I tried to get him to criticise solar and wind power as certainly I would do if I was being interviewed, but he wouldn’t go that far. But nevertheless, very, very far for a former RBA governor.
Sharri Markson:
Absolutely. Immigration levels as well. We heard some of those remarks there, but he said, look, the population needs to come down. We don’t have the infrastructure to support it.
Adam Creighton:
Yes, that’s exactly right. He basically said, look, if you’re not going to fix the tax system, if you’re not going to make the supply side of the economy more productive and more flexible, then you have to reduce immigration. So he was basically saying what One Nation is proposing, I don’t know, I mean, he certainly didn’t endorse the One Nation policy, but the broad thrust of the comment was certainly that we do significantly need to reduce immigration if we do not reform the industrial relation system, the energy system, the tax system, all these things. And as you well know, none of those things have been reformed, certainly not in a positive way for quite some time.
Sharri Markson:
And just on the tax system, he was saying that our personal income tax rates are too high, was he not?
Adam Creighton:
Yes, he certainly was. As you well know, our top rate’s 47%. It cuts at $190,000, which is only $10,000 more than in 2008. If it hadn’t been indexed to inflation, it would be $287,000, which is where the top rates are in many other countries. And so he’s quite right to say that that is a massive ball and chain around the Australian economy. It basically creates this huge industry of tax avoidance, which we have one of the largest tax avoidance industries in the world. And of course that is a drag on productivity too, which he was also very concerned about.
Sharri Markson:
Yeah. Well, clearly you got under the treasurer’s skin today. I heard him mention the podcast when he was asked about it at the press conference, but look, clearly Philip Lowe has-
Adam Creighton:
He didn’t mention me though, unfortunately. That was disappointing.
Sharri Markson:
Philip Lowe obviously has a high degree of respect for you, Adam, to give you that long interview. So well done again, and thank you so much for your time.
This transcript with Adam Creighton talking on Sharri – News24 from 30 September 2026 has been edited for clarity.
