n this interview, Adam Creighton appeared on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s criminal justice research.
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.
Rita Panahi:
Joining me now, Senior Fellow and Chief Economist of the IPA, Adam Creighton. Adam, there was four hours of utter mayhem in Melbourne. Roads were blocked, public transport was disrupted, widespread violence, and I haven’t heard condemnation yet. I may have missed it from the Premier, from the prime minister, there seems to be just this tolerance of left-wing violence.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah. Well, actually I ended up in that protest, funnily enough, the trans protest accidentally-
Rita Panahi:
You’re part of the left-wing violence?
Adam Creighton:
I accidentally-
Rita Panahi:
Accidentally.
Adam Creighton:
… walked around the corner and suddenly I was surrounded by all these rabid people. That lady certainly used the right word. It was shocking how vicious and horrible these people were. I was actually very depressed about Melbourne actually, watching it all. They were spitting at police, pushing police, screaming at police-
Rita Panahi:
And yet there was only a couple of arrests. When you’re talking about four hours of mayhem, of just lawlessness, I don’t know how you can have just two arrests. You saw them literally spitting on police?
Adam Creighton:
Yeah. Yep. One person did. They tried to break into the Vodafone store, strangely on the corner, but just on your broader point, yeah, we always hear about far right this far right that, but what are these people? These are extreme far left, and you never hear it called out.
Rita Panahi:
No.
Adam Creighton:
So it’s extraordinary double standard, and it’s very depressing. These people are extremists in the true sense of the word, and I think they’re very aggressive, and can be dangerous. And funnily, they’re all wearing their COVID masks, and I’m not sure whether they’re still scared of the virus, or virtue signalling, or they just don’t want to show their identity.
Rita Panahi:
I think it’s a little from column A and B and C, because I think given some of the antics, they’d rather not be identified by police-
Adam Creighton:
Although they probably don’t have jobs, so they’re probably not concerned about it.
Rita Panahi:
And this protest was a three-pronged protest, so they were there because the women were holding a women’s rights rally, so of course that can’t be allowed in Melbourne. But there were also an anti-Israel protest amongst them, and also an anti-police one, because there was a police shooting in Melbourne about a week ago. So it just shows you it’s the same leftist crowd, whether it’s an anti-police rally, whether it’s an environmental rally, whether it’s a trans rally. It’s the same usual suspects.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, the police did a good job too, I must say. They were putting up with a lot, they were very calm under pressure, and I felt sorry for them. Actually-
Rita Panahi:
Well, sometimes I’d like them to sort of show the attitude they showed with the anti-lockdown protesters with these protesters, because they arguably went in very hard… Not arguably, they did go in very hard with what were peaceful protesters during lockdown, and now they have a very permissive attitude indeed.
Also, more controversy in Melbourne, I’m going to be talking to Professor Ian Plymer about this later, but I’m interested in your thoughts on the ANZAC service, the Dawn service being disrupted in Melbourne when the Welcome to Country was underway. It was a five-minute-long Welcome to Country. What do you make of the controversy? And it should also be noted that along with the five-minute-long official Welcome To Country-
Adam Creighton:
$1,000 a minute, apparently.
Rita Panahi:
Is it? My goodness me.
Adam Creighton:
That’s the cost.
Rita Panahi:
There was also the MC who had an acknowledgement of country, and also the governor added an acknowledgement of country. So it was a lot. What are your thoughts about the whole thing?
Adam Creighton:
What shocked me was that both sides of politics basically defended the Welcome to Country at the ANZAC service, when they must know that the vast majority of Australians would not think it’s appropriate. Look, I don’t know if there’s been surveys on that, but I would bet a thousand dollars that the majority would say on ANZAC Day, it’s not appropriate. And what I’d certainly bet a lot more on is that if you surveyed veterans or surveyed our men and women in the armed forces now, they would also say it’s not appropriate on ANZAC Day, because to welcome soldiers to the country that they defended is somewhat ridiculous. And I do think the broader point, we just have so many of these things, it’s becoming a joke. The plane lands, there’s a Welcome to Country. The plane takes off, there’s a Welcome to Country. ANZAC Day, before every single official occasion.
Rita Panahi:
Assembly, before every meeting, sometimes multiple announcements during meetings. I mean, it’s beyond absurd. I’ve always said it is a PC way of saying, “Go back to where you came from.”
Adam Creighton:
Exactly.
Rita Panahi:
I find it as a migrant very offensive, basically-
Adam Creighton:
And it’s so hypocritical.
Rita Panahi:
… telling me this isn’t my land.
Adam Creighton:
Exactly.
Rita Panahi:
I’m not entitled to see Australia as fully my home because of my ethnicity. I mean, how is that anything other than racial?
Adam Creighton:
Extremely.
Rita Panahi:
It is, yeah.
Adam Creighton:
Just to give you an anecdote, when I landed in Australia for, I spent four years in the US, it was a Qantas flight, there was a Welcome to Country when I landed. I’d never experienced that before, this is in Sydney, this is back in January. And I thought, honestly, seven of my eight great-grandparents were born in Australia. And I’m being welcomed? I can’t, this is my country.
Rita Panahi:
Where will you not be, have to be welcomed?0 Where is actually your home-
Adam Creighton:
Exactly.
Rita Panahi:
… coming, come on. Now, let’s watch here as three right-wing activists from the National Workers Alliance launch a protest at a friends of the ABC event attended by Teal MP Monique Ryan. Naturally the response of some of the lefties there was to get very upset, and one of them ran and hit one of these protesters. Now, Monique Ryan, instead of perhaps admonishing this woman for that act of violence, is quick to comfort her and give her a hug. Have a look at this.
Video:
*Video audio
Rita Panahi:
Oh, there is Monique coming in for the hug, the group hug. Look, I don’t even know who these protesters were, what they were saying. That’s not the point.
Adam Creighton:
Well unless you’re far-right.
Rita Panahi:
Obviously, but why is someone running up to someone and punching them?
Adam Creighton:
It’s crazy. It’s funny, actually. But it’s a little old lady-
Rita Panahi:
It was a little old.
Adam Creighton:
… and she hits this huge man.
Rita Panahi:
She’s not going to do much damage. But I mean really, again, if the cases were reversed, it was a far left activist who wasn’t being violent but being punched by somebody, and the conservative politician went in and hugged the person throwing the punch, it would be front page news. People would be irate.
Adam Creighton:
Would be.
Rita Panahi:
But we’re just laughing at this.
Adam Creighton:
That’s right. It’s just the inherent bias of the media. 80% of journalists vote one way, and it shows in the reporting.
Rita Panahi:
Absolutely. Now to more serious matter, despite vehement opposition from Victoria Police registered sex offenders in Victoria are successfully applying to have lifelong reporting conditions, lifted with some even winning the right to live next to Victorian schools, is a report from the Herald Sun.
Recent cases include a foster carer who raped a 15-year-old in his care, but has now successfully argued that ongoing reporting conditions have become onerous. The man known as GT has argued he wanted to travel freely into state to visit his parents and honeymoon overseas with a new partner. Adam, the judge in that case, determined that while GT’s offending was very serious, it was in the public interest to ease his reporting obligations. I’m not sure about that rationale, maybe you can explain it to him.
Adam Creighton:
Well, it’s certainly not in the public interest. Look, I mean, this is a difficult philosophical issue. People serve their time, should they still have various conditions attached to them. But I do think in the case of sexual abuse of children, you do forfeit your rights, I think somewhat permanently when you commit these crimes. And you have to understand that the rest of the community would like to know where you are, or at least generally, and there should be some restrictions. I mean, I’m not a criminologist, but my understanding is the rehabilitation rates of this class of crime is not great.
Rita Panahi:
Well, I think if the police are vehemently against it, that should tell us something, because I don’t think they’re signing up to do more work. I think they, they’re concerned because they think there will be some sort of reoffending, or at least a risk of reoffending.
Now let’s talk about what’s happening in Queensland. And new figures from the government are showing that the tough-on-crime approach with youth offenders is working. They’ve got these new adult crime, adult time laws. There’s been a 32% drop in cases against children charged with at least one of the 13 offences that are included in these laws. So we’ve had quite a dramatic drop there, Adam, and I think it just shows that though tough-on-crime measures are enormously unpopular with the activists who work in that sector, they actually work.
Adam Creighton:
No, they do work. And they’ve worked all around the world for many decades. We know this. Economists know this. They test this. I mean, New York’s a classic example. There was these huge crime waves in the 70s and 80s, the new mayor came in, it got very tough, and the crime went way down. So this is a good thing, I think well done to the Queensland government, and what a contrast with Victoria. I think they maybe need a bit of the Queensland attitude down here where crime’s been increasing.
So yeah, so I think it’s job well done. I mean, I was a little bit surprised actually, because these youth offenders, I don’t think they’re the smartest kids in the world. I’m shocked that they even know what penalties are. But anyway, maybe they’ve looked into it.
Rita Panahi:
Now before you go, we’ve just had the long weekend. We’ve had two consecutive long weekends. A lot of people have paid surcharges when they’ve been out dining. And the Prime Minister has had his say about this issue. He says it supports the rights of workers to earn penalty rates, is all for that. But he doesn’t think businesses should be charging these public holiday surcharges to cover the increased wages bill.
I mean, this is just another sign to me that the Prime Minister perhaps is economically illiterate. How can you have these enormous costs imposed on small businesses, little cafes, restaurants paying around $80 an hour for people waiting, and how can they absorb that without passing it on?
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, well, actually, I was at a bar in Melbourne on Friday, and the head bartender was telling me all the staff were earning $72 an hour because-
Rita Panahi:
$72 an hour. I heard the dishwashers were earning $72 an hour on the weekend in Victoria.
Adam Creighton:
So, of course they have to pass it on to some extent. And the 15%, by the way, is a lot less than the added costs, so their margins would be a lot smaller that day.
Rita Panahi:
Well, it’s basically you either shut up shop, or you have to have the surcharge. I mean, no one likes getting that surprise on their bill, and often it is a surprise. You miss the little note on the menu that tells you it exists. But I don’t think you can be blaming the cafe owners for being greedy in that instance.
Adam Creighton:
Certainly not.
Rita Panahi:
Adam Creighton, thanks for your time tonight.
Adam Creighton:
Thank.
This transcript of Adam Creighton speaking on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia from 28 April 2025 has been edited for clarity.
