In this interview Adam Creighton appeared on Sharri – Sky News Australia to discuss the discuss the IPA’s research on net zero.
All media appearances posted onto the IPA website are directly related to the promotion and dissemination of IPA research.
Below is a transcript of the interview.
Sharri Markson:
It is just disgraceful. Joining me now is my panel, former liberal senator, Hollie Hughes, and IPA senior fellow, Adam Creighton. Now, she’s now issued a statement trying to justify her horrible remarks. She says she extends sympathies to Charlie Kirk’s young family. She condemns all form of political violence, but Hollie, the issue is that it’s been six days since he was killed. Why is she talking about him? Why is she… I don’t even know what she means by RIP, but I can imagine it’s something very offensive.
Hollie Hughes:
I don’t know what the P is. I’ve actually been trying to think what the P is that she’s referring to other than peace.
Sharri Markson:
She should be above this as a member of parliament.
Hollie Hughes:
This is now the second parliamentarian who’s been embroiled from the Australian parliament in either liking a post or now making a post that is almost condoning the assassination of Charlie Kirk or political violence in any of its form. But what I did note, she said, “I was hoping Charlie Kirk would just be a footnote to Trumpian politics.” Well, I have no doubt Fatima Payman will be lucky to make a footnote. The only thing she will be probably ever remembered for is ratting on the ALP, because we know how much they embrace that sort of behaviour. But why she felt that was necessary? Read the room, people. Have a look what’s happened everywhere, and we can see in the United States, and I don’t know but I assume it’s going to happen elsewhere, people are being fired for the way that they celebrated his assassination, and then she goes and behaves this way. Well, let’s just hope the Australian people fire her at the next election.
Sharri Markson:
Yep. Let’s hope that indeed. Adam, the point here is that Charlie Kirk engaged in respectful debate. He wouldn’t have ever mocked someone or made an off-colour joke about them after their death.
Adam Creighton :
No, that is certainly true, but I can also inform you ladies that the word for P is another word for urine, so certainly in very poor taste, quite grotesque comments, very contemptible, and it’s very sad that we have senators elected to the Senate like this. She should be judged by civil society, and she will be. It seems that she is already backtracking, as she should. But just a general point, we have to remember that one of the things that Charlie Kirk very much stood for was free speech, and even if it was horrible speech, even it was in very bad taste, he was very much for it, he didn’t support people being cancelled or charged criminally for what they say. So we just have to keep in mind at moments like these that the people are going to disagree, people are going to be rude and awful, and in a civil society, we just have to live with it, but of course, that said, what the senator said is very disgusting.
Sharri Markson:
No, it is indeed. Now, we’re seeing now, Trump obviously arrived in the UK overnight our time. He’s been met with pageantry, royalty, carriages, processions, gun salutes. The centrepiece of the visit was a banquet in St. George’s Hall. Both King Charles and President Trump will make speeches. Hollie, Trump has had a very warm reception here. King Charles, his friend, spoke about how strong the relationship is.
Hollie Hughes:
Yeah. Isn’t it incredible that the UK can generate such a strong relationship, even with a very, very left-wing prime minister, yet we’re still yet to get a meeting and this is his second visit to the UK. We saw the typical behaviour with the images put up on Windsor Castle, but I think it’s wonderful that he’s there. There’s obviously a lot of serious issues that’ll need to be discussed, and part of what’s happening within NATO and how those international groups and organisations are working together. But I’m a monarchist, so I just love seeing any of this in the pageantry. I think it’s fabulous.
Sharri Markson:
Yeah, and Trump of course loves having the royal treatment as we know. Adam, there is a controversy as well. We’ve seen the protests that Hollie just referred to, projecting images of him and Jeffrey Epstein, pretty obscene.
Adam Creighton :
Yes. Look, I think Trump is very used to all these sorts of protests. I don’t think that he’s going to care very much about that. He’s just enjoying a victory lap. As you said, I think it’s very rare for presidents to get this sort of invitation to Windsor Castle twice. The president arrives with the US being very powerful. The UK is a very diminished force. I just checked today. In 2010, the UK was 4% of the globe’s GDP, and now it’s 3%, so that’s just in 15 years, it’s shrunk by 25%, so I don’t really think the US president really cares very much what the UK thinks. He’s enjoying himself, he likes King Charles. I don’t think he thinks very much of Starmer, and of course, the irony is that the UK government does not even-
Sharri Markson:
Why do you say he doesn’t think much of Starmer? They seem to have a good relationship.
Adam Creighton :
Well, they seem to, but Trump tries to have a good relationship with everyone. People misunderstand him in this sense. He’s extremely kind to people on the left of politics who are leaders of other countries, whether it’s Mark Carney or Starmer, or of course even Anthony Albanese, who he said a number of times is a nice man, a good man, so Trump is very gracious for all the criticism that he gets. Look, the trade deal with the UK has already been inked I think back in April. That’s over. I don’t think there’s really that much to discuss. I think Trump’s just enjoying himself. He’s going to play some golf, he’s going to go to Checkers. He’s having a lovely time.
Sharri Markson:
And we might get some live pictures of him later this hour. If so, we’ll bring them to you. Now, one of the true giants of cinema has left us with Robert Redford passing away in his home in Utah at the age of 89. Incredible legacy, acting, directing, the creation of the Sundance Film Festival. In 1974, he bought the rights to Washington Post journalists, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward’s book about the Watergate scandal, All The President’s Men, and he played Woodward in the film.
Actor 1:
Forget the myths the media has created about the White House. The truth is these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.
Actor 2:
Supposedly he’s got a lawyer with $25,000 in a brown paper bag.
Actor 1:
Follow the money.
Actor 2:
What do you mean?
Sharri Markson:
Yeah, Hollie, a sad day, but a good long life and incredible legacy.
Hollie Hughes:
I’m so glad you played that clip. I think that’s my favourite Redford film, and honestly, I remember watching that movie when I was at school and was one of the reasons why I went off and did journalism after I left school, because it was that whole Woodward and Bernstein, that whole Watergate, the story and the intrigue and the journalism behind that, it was incredible. And All The Presidents Men was definitely one of my favourites, probably only followed by Out of Africa.
Sharri Markson:
No, I do love All The Presidents Men as well. Adam, I’m not going to ask you about Robert Redford. I know you wanted to speak about the Victorian Government’s decision over the offshore wind farm that they’ve now deferred.
Adam Creighton :
Yeah, sure. Look, this just shows that offshore wind is increasingly uneconomic, and it’s really no surprise. This isn’t the first projects that’s been cancelled or postponed. We’ve seen projects in the last few years in South Australia, in Queensland and also New South Wales that have been knocked on the head, and it stands to reason really. This is an extremely uneconomic way to create energy. You’ve got to basically build wind turbines, or sorry, import wind turbines which are about the height of Centrepoint Tower in Sydney, and you have to fasten them in the ocean. Then they only work 40% of the time, and then you have to get the energy from those turbines back to the major cities. So just think about the economics of that. It’s completely insane, of course, even with the state and federal government subsidies, so no wonder they’re falling over.
And also, I think they’re probably falling over because they take five to seven years or so to build, and I think some of these investors would be worrying that public opinion is slowly changing against net-zero, and who knows what the environment will be like in five years? They’re probably worrying that they won’t get much money back at all.
Sharri Markson:
I did an event this week, Hollie, a Zoom event for an American Australia Association. They said to me, what is the growth area in Australia? And it’s a really hard question because-
Hollie Hughes:
The public service.
Sharri Markson:
The public service. Because you would say, well, the government’s putting a lot of money into the renewables industry, but most of it were imports, the actual equipment is being imported from China.
Hollie Hughes:
Absolutely it is. And there are interconnectors that are used in all of these renewable projects that are all coming from China, and when I asked the question when it was my shadow portfolio and asked the question of the Department of Climate Change and Energy, what discussions they had had with foreign affairs and home affairs and defence and security, and they had had none. And so we really have two arms of government who aren’t talking to each other and aren’t understanding any national security threat that could be made by this race to renewables, and really improper checks around the equipment that’s being used, but particularly how it can be intercepted and manipulated if a state actor wanted to.
Sharri Markson:
But also, of course, the hypocrisy of this being a boom area for a nation-
Hollie Hughes:
It’s not
Sharri Markson:
As in for China, a nation that is one of the world’s highest emitters.
Hollie Hughes:
Well, I lived in worry that they built this big solar farm out there, they promised all these jobs were going to come with it. And can I tell you, there were jobs during the construction, and then as soon as the construction phase was over, off everybody went.
Sharri Markson:
All right. Hollie Hughes, Adam Creighton, thank you both so much.
This transcript of Adam Creighton speaking on Sharri – Sky News Australia from 17 September 2025 has been edited for clarity.
