In this interview, Daniel Wild appeared on The Rita Panahi show on Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on immigration.
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:
The Greens joining me now. For more on this is Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Daniel Wild. Dan, what does this result mean for the country? We had the Coalition win in the Northern Territory earlier in the year. Is this evidence of a centre-right resurgence that’s happening post the successful no campaign? The voice seems to have been a bit of a turning point.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, that’s right, Rita. I think the voice, no vote was a catalyst for this. We’ve seen the divisiveness of Labour at the state and federal level out of touch with mainstream Australians. The majority of the seats that the LNP picked up in Queensland were not in Brisbane. They weren’t in the southeast corridor. They were in the outer suburbs and in the regions. And that’s a part of an ongoing trend of the realignment we’re seeing in Australian politics where we have those lower income workers, working class Australians, those in the outer suburbs, those without a university qualification, those who voted no to the voice, to parliament moving to the centre-right. We’ve been up in North Queensland a number of times, and I could tell you the 50 cent bus fare or public transport made no difference to their lives. It was a policy that was simply pitched at the inner cities, and ultimately that’s why Labour lost and the Coalition won in not a significant majority, but certainly a very comfortable one.
Rita Panahi:
Now, the Greens had a terrible night. They hope to have six seats after this election. They may be lucky to hold on to just one. Greens leader Adam Bandt has blamed the loss on Labour, saying this virus statement. He said, “Instead of fighting the LNP, Labour gave up on government and focused on fighting the Greens. If Labour focuses on fighting the Greens, the Liberals get to take over.” Is that really the reason behind the Greens demise in Queensland, Dan?
Daniel Wild:
Well, that’s a convenient excuse, Rita. That’s not the reason. The reason is that we’ve seen peak Green. They peaked at the last federal election, and what Australians have seen over the last two years has been the true colours of who the Greens really are. They’re not environmentalists. They’re not trying to stand up for the downtrodden, but they are a radical party. They’re an anti-Australian party. We’ve seen that with the Israel-Palestine conflict. We see it with their radical views. Many of them oppose the voice, not because they opposed it on the basis that it was divisive, but because it didn’t go far enough. They support treaty and truth telling and these other concepts. So Australians are beginning to see that the Greens are not as advertised. And the more that Australians see about the Greens, the less they like them and the less that they’re going to vote for them.
Rita Panahi:
Now to get another example of hard left activism infiltrating our legal system, the Herald Sun reports magistrates in Victoria have been given training on how to impose sentences for visa holders who have committed crimes, and that for these sentences to be just light enough to avoid triggering deportation. Under federal migration laws, the training sessions were part of a professional development course undertaken by magistrates last week, which was described by some attendees as troubling. Troubling seems to be an understatement there, Dan. We are seeing this over and over again in the justice system, and all it can do is undermine the public’s trust in the justice system.
Daniel Wild:
Well, that’s exactly right, Rita. The whole basis of our justice system is that everybody is treated equally, that there is no activism or ideological activism, that people who are before the court are assessed in accordance with the crimes that they’re accused of having committed, and that they will be dealt with accordingly. There should be no preference given for whether you are a migrant or whatever your background might be. The law has to apply to us equally. One of the reasons Australians are losing confidence in the justice system is it’s not a one-off. We’ve seen white privilege training in the legal profession. We saw the two-tier justice system in Victoria through COVID, where Black Lives Matter protesters were given the red carpet treatment, but anybody else was brutally shut down by Victoria police. So we need the justice system to get back to its foundational idea, which is that we’re all individuals in our society, and we need to be treated equally and fairly under our system of laws.
Rita Panahi:
Now, Dan, a Jewish wine shop owner, Tim Cohen, he took the social media a few days ago to say he was done. The anti-Semites had won. He couldn’t see how his business could survive, all the hate and hostility.
Tim Cohen:
She just said, “Oh, it’s so good that you’re quiet. We want you gone from this suburb. We don’t need your kind here.” And she turned around and waddled out. And oh yeah, I did cry. And for the last hour or so, I’ve just been sitting on a crate in the corner and just thinking about that and going, wow, this is hateful. This is black… This is brown shirt material. This is Hitler youth material. And yeah, I am broken. I’m done. I’m broken inside. So yes, my business is quiet. It’s dying.
Rita Panahi:
So after 10 years, his wine shop, Brunswick East Wine, looked like it was about to close until that clip went viral, Dan. Three days later on the weekend, he posted this video
Tim Cohen:
Message to thank everyone that came through today, the tribe. It was gorgeous. Amazing.
Rita Panahi:
This looks like it might have a happy ending, Dan, but I wonder how many other businesses in the inner north, where the Greens, the hard left, have quite a bit of influence and power, are facing this, how many Jewish-owned businesses are facing this sort of hostility and considering closing down or moving their businesses?
Daniel Wild:
Well, that’s exactly right. The hard left. They preach love, but they practise hate. No one in this country should be targeted on the basis of their religious background or their beliefs. It is heartening to see that the community has rallied behind this wine shop owner, and I think it shows that really, it’s just a noisy minority activist class that is trying to push the agenda on our country. It’s not just in relation to Israel-Palestine, but any of the major issues that we face. Whether it’s on climate change or the voice to parliament or immigration, you have a small noisy minority that’s pushing it, but we know that mainstream Australians want to treat everybody equally, that in this country, we don’t boycott people or discourage people from entering a store because the store owner happens to be Jewish or any other religious denomination. That goes against everything that our nation is all about. So hopefully, as you’ve suggested, it does have a happy ending, which I think it might.
Rita Panahi:
I hope so. I hope so because that original video was really quite heart-wrenching. Now I’m interested in your thoughts on what happened earlier today, the massive Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Everyone was there. Hulk Hogan, Dr. Phil, Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk. They were among those who spoke to the sold-out crowd, and it was Melania herself who introduced Donald Trump.
Melania Trump:
Please welcome our next Commander-in-Chief, my husband, president Donald J. Trump.
Rita Panahi:
And Donald Trump vowed to fix the mess left by the Biden-Harris administration.
Donald Trump:
I’d like to begin by asking a very simple question, are you better off now than you were four years ago? On issue after issue, Kamala broke it, but I will fix it, but we’re going to fix it.
Rita Panahi:
Dan, the election’s just a week away. How do you see it?
Daniel Wild:
Well, I think it’s encouraging that Donald Trump has gone to Democrat stronghold states, New York. He also did a big rally in California not long ago, and that’s because his message resonates with a vast majority of mainstream Americans who have been stuck in these Democrat states which are failing. So I think it’s very encouraging that he’s outreaching into these areas. Clearly, the momentum is behind him. You can see that in the polls. In the battleground states, he’s ahead. There’s a long way to go, as we know. And anything can happen on election night. It’ll probably come down to a few hundred thousand votes, if that. But the reality is, I think the message of Trump, which is let’s get the economy working, we’ve got to fix the border and stop illegal immigration, and stop being ashamed of our nation. They’ve got a very proud nation and a proud history.
It resonates with people right across the country. So look, he’s not going to win New York in terms of the Electoral College, but he’s doing a great good in terms of outreach for the next generation that may go Republican over the next few cycles.
Rita Panahi:
I’ll tell you, if he had the money that Kamala Harris is spending, he may be winning New York. The spending difference between those two campaigns, something that is not talked about often, is incredible. I think last month, she spent more than three times that of the Republican campaign. Just quickly before you go, just as another example of why the Harris campaign is faltering, a small town in Ohio, Lockland, has seen its population nearly double. After 3000 migrants from Mauritania in West Africa were moved there over the past 12 months. Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration, this influx stand has really caused a housing crisis there, and also severe strain on vital services. When you look at case by case, town by town, you can see why so many people are turning away from the Democrats.
Daniel Wild:
Well, that’s right. These are the real world human costs of uncontrolled migration. We know the economic story, but this shows us what happens to people in these small towns when the political leaders aren’t doing their job of protecting the borders and making sure that any immigration intake is controlled.
Rita Panahi:
Dan Wild, thank you for your time tonight.
This transcript with Daniel Wild talking on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 28 October 2024 has been edited for clarity.
