In this interview, Adam Creighton appeared on Sharri Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on government spending.
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:
Okay, let’s get some more analysis about Trump’s tariffs, and I’m joined now by IPA Senior Fellow and Chief Economist Adam Creighton. Adam, thanks for your time. Look, what’s your-
Adam Creighton:
Sharri, good evening.
Sharri Markson:
… take on these tariffs? Are they reciprocal, at least with Australia, and do you think they’re a bad idea?
Adam Creighton:
Well, just a few points there, Sharri. Your editorial, I think, was very right. The prime minister’s rhetoric is so over the top here. The implication is that the US has somehow put new taxes on Australians, but no Australian will be sending a single cent to the US Treasury as a result of these tariffs. They are taxes on Americans, specifically American importers, and they will ultimately increase the prices of goods and services for Americans. So it’s a quasi-consumption tax, and I would argue that this is therefore a matter for the United States. In fact, as you also said, Australia ended up with the lowest rate of all applying to the imports from Australia, only 10%. I think Japan got 20%, the European Union 24%. So we’ve actually done pretty well out of this new policy of the United States.
And the second point is the fiscal situation in the US. There are $2 trillion deficits as far as the eye can see, and these tariffs will raise about $700 billion. Now, if the US government is not going to cut spending by $2 trillion, and I don’t think it will, then this is practically the only alternative that it has. And just very quickly, finally, on all the doom-and-gloom forecasts, the stock market in Australia only fell by 1% today, which was a pretty small move, so certainly, investors do not see these tariffs as the end of the economic world.
Sharri Markson:
Yeah, the stock market’s one thing, and that’s going to move around, but what about the concerns that some have, and including the Wall Street Journal mentioned this, about how it could potentially, the tariffs, be inflationary. What’s your view on that?
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, they could be. I mean, the first round of tariffs, certainly, they were much smaller in 2018, from the first Trump presidency, on China. But there wasn’t such a huge impact on inflation back then. And I’d just be very wary of the economic consensus, because certainly, we’ve seen in the last 10 years, that the consensus of economists tends to get the big things wrong. So I would be reluctant to say that this is going to be hugely inflationary. We haven’t seen huge changes in the 10-year US bond yield, which suggests to me that the forecasts for inflation haven’t really changed a great deal. You know, this is basically a huge quasi-consumption tax on Americans from my point of view, so there will be an increase in price, but some of the burden, of course, will be borne by the exporters from other countries. We just don’t know as yet kind of how the burden will actually fall.
Sharri Markson:
I want to ask you about a couple of other topics, but very quickly, while this has been Trump’s policy for a long time, the current US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, he is considered to be pretty smart. He knows what he’s doing. Would you agree with that?
Adam Creighton:
Uh-huh. Oh, certainly, yes. He’s a multi-billionaire. I think he’s largely self-made, almost entirely self-made, very smart man, and very highly respected in markets, I would say.
Sharri Markson:
And so he would know what he’s doing here? I mean, he’s implementing this.
Adam Creighton:
Yes, yes. Well, obviously he’s implementing Donald Trump’s policies. We don’t know his private views necessarily, but he certainly puts himself out there as a very articulate spokesman.
Sharri Markson:
All right, just want to get your view on a couple of other topics that have been big news today. Firstly, the issue of the Teals and their hypocrisy. It’s front and centre. They’ve been accused of double standards for refusing to comment on that inappropriate joke by the Bradfield Teal candidate Nicolette Boele at the hair salon. The liberals have put together an ad to highlight the point. If we have that, let’s play it.
Monique Ryan:
As your member for Kooyong I will act with integrity and honesty.
Kieran Gilbert:
It’s a question of do you practise what you preach.
Channel 7 Reporter:
Teal MP already made headlines earlier this week, accused of shouting at children in a quarrel with liberal volunteers.
Alicia Loxley:
Monique Ryan’s husband tearing down one of her liberal rival’s campaign signs.
Liberal Party Member:
There you go. Monique Ryan, there you go. Community values.
Monique Ryan:
It’s been a really good day for integrity and transparency in Australian Parliament today.
Sharri Markson:
Adam, this is double standards, isn’t it? Why can’t they comment on their own inappropriate comment?
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, I think they’re trying to play a small target strategy like many politicians are in this election. I think it’s fair to say overall, the brand of the Teals has not done so well in the first week or so of the campaign. They haven’t been falling off stages yet, but certainly, the hair salon joke, the Corflutes drama. It’s not been a good first week for them.
Sharri Markson:
No. Absolutely not, and the biggest revelation for me this week was when Ray Hadley told me that men don’t get their hair washed in hair salons. I literally had no idea about that. I can’t imagine a man leaving a hairdressing-
Adam Creighton:
Well, sometimes they do.
Sharri Markson:
… salon without getting their-
Adam Creighton:
I think I have before.
Sharri Markson:
… hair washed. Okay, well maybe you, Adam. Just finally, got to cover this story. Hamas has admitted that 72% of Palestinian deaths were combat-aged men, so terrorists, and they’ve revised down their figures. This is quite extraordinary, and we haven’t really seen this broadly covered.
Adam Creighton:
Well, certainly that doesn’t shock me at all. I mean, the first casualty of war is truth, and there’s always an incentive for governments to exaggerate or to change figures to help their cause, and it would not shock me at all with the case of Hamas here that they’ve been exaggerating the death figures to generate an emotional response around the world. So look, if there’s any silver lining to this ongoing tragedy in the Middle East, at least they’re trying to put out the correct figures I guess, but yeah, they should have done that in the first place. But I think the broader lesson is don’t seize on the casualty and the death figures of various governments in wartime, because they probably don’t even know what they are themselves, but there’s always an incentive to exaggerate for their own purposes.
Sharri Markson:
Mm-hmm. Well, inflating death figures. I mean, we always knew that was the case, and now the proof’s starting to emerge. Adam Creighton, thank you very much for your time.
This transcript of Adam Creighton appearing on Sharri – Sky News Australia from 3 April 2025 has been edited for clarity.
