In this interview Daniel Wild appeared on Credlin – 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.
Peta Credlin:
I’ll explain why in a moment. First, Chris Bowen has vowed to pursue a very ambitious 2035 emissions reduction target despite a global retreat from all the big emitters on climate action. And he’s all doomsday about it all and warning of devastating economic environmental health impacts if we do not act. Here to discuss this and more, Deputy Executive Director at the Institute of Public Affairs, Dan Wild, the former Liberal MP, Nicole Flint.
Well, sky’s falling in says labour. But Dan, they’ve been saying this for decades. They keep pushing out all of these timelines. And when catastrophe does not happen and we don’t get the empty reservoirs, they hit us again and hit us again. And you got to wonder whether we’ve finally hit peak climate Armageddon and ordinary Australians are saying, “Come on, Bowen, you’re chicken little.”
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, I think so, Peta. I think the community is really starting to turn off from this climate alarmism. As you say, it’s a false prediction after false prediction, or a cynic might say they’re not predictions at all, but you’re being used as a cudgel to try and shame people into going along with this destructive agenda.
I think one of the challenges we face though, Peta, is at least in the political arena, because the policy of net zero is not yet being contested, the public isn’t being exposed to the true costs of these kinds of policies, which is one of the reasons why it’s so critical that the Coalition comes out very strongly against the policy of net zero so that we can have a debate on this matter. Because when these issues are exposed to the public, they will very quickly back away from supporting net zero for all of the reasons that we’ve discussed over the weeks, Peta. So Chris Bowen has said that this will be an emissions target that Australians can be proud of. I could tell you they’re not going to be proud of it, but they are going to be poor because of it.
Peta Credlin:
I think some of the things people don’t understand, Nic, is the scale of the subsidies coming from their pocket to a lot of these wind and solar companies and how many of them are foreign owned. There’s talk today in the newspapers that the Albanese government’s going to slash wind licence fees. This is for offshore wind. And as I say, 70 plus percent of these are offshore because not enough of these big projects are getting off the ground. We’ve seen another one cancelled in Victoria. Again, the more that the Liberals were to talk about this, the more that they help people to understand none of this is free. The net zero comes not just with the household harm, but massive hits to the budget.
Nicolle Flint:
Of course it does, Peta, and already we’ve seen tens of billions of dollars being paid by the federal Albanese government to companies based overseas. So it’s not money that’s coming back here to keep jobs and manufacturing going in Australia.
What is fascinating, I think, is that we have constantly heard from the likes of the CSIRO about how cheap renewables are and how sustainable, but why on earth would you need levies if they are? And just like you and just like Daniel, I would love to see the Coalition start to unpack on a case-by-case basis, we could start with wind, the precise costs to taxpayers, the precise costs to the Australian environment, the precise costs to communities. Because on all of the reading that I have done and the research that I’ve done, Peta, the costs do not stack up.
It’s a complete fallacy that wind is one of the cheapest forms of power, and yet that’s been the narrative from Labour and from the likes of the CSIRO. And the actual environmental costs never seems to get factored in because all of these turbines have a lifespan of 15 to 20 years if they’re lucky. And I think that’s usually on land, let alone when they’re out at sea. They can’t be recycled. What on earth happens to them at end of life? And at what cost to Australian taxpayers? Because we can all imagine these foreign-owned companies won’t be here with cleaning up at the end of life on wind turbines that are offshore. So what happens? Do they just get left to rot into the sea, causing further environmental damage?
Peta Credlin:
Yeah, of course they do. And then there’ll be the push to put more money into new wind farms and new solar farms, and the degradation will continue.
Hey, let’s go to that Islamophobia report out on Friday, I have to say conveniently buried. I think that was much the attempt of the government. But they won’t bury it when it comes to moving on 54 of the recommendations. They claim, the report authors’ claim that Islamophobia in Australia’s reached unprecedented levels. I don’t know about that, but I’ll tell you what, the anti-Semitism has, and much of the recommendations from that report have been ignored. The PM’s going to go to the UN in coming weeks and pledge to recognise Palestine. Now this report’s on his table. My fear here, Dan, is they’re going to try and do what they’ve done in the United Kingdom. They’re desperately trying to get up these blasphemy laws that’ll basically ban any criticism, justified criticism of Islam, under the guise of Islamophobia.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, I share your reservations concerns about this, Peta, and I think more broadly it’s really used as a sort of another cudgel to along that line of argument that Australia is a racist nation and for it to be used, if not for blasphemy laws, certainly for hate speech laws, further hate speech laws. And I suspect it’ll also be used as a renewed push for misinformation censorship laws, which the government tried to get through in last term of Parliament. But they were so unpopular and toxic that they didn’t even get to a vote on the floor of the Senate because the Greens, and also I think almost every single cross-bencher, had indicated they would be voting against those laws.
But the other point here is I think we’re starting to really reach the end point of multiculturalism, which is the ideology that underpins Australia’s migration programme. And it encourages groups, whether it’s those of the Muslim faith or other religious groups and ethnic groups, to see themselves as separate from the Australian national community and to push for special rights for themselves in a way that don’t apply to other groups in our society. And this is just another example of how multiculturalism is dividing Australian society.
Peta Credlin:
Well, let’s just stay with that point, very profound, because have a look at this. I picked up this photograph. It’s of the logic camera and out the front, you’re like this, Nic, we were children in the ’70s, Gough and Margaret Whitlam standing there very proudly in front of three flag poles and three Australian flags. Now, I don’t think I’ve ever said this, Nicole Flint, but good on Gough.
Nicolle Flint:
Well, it’s about time we had something to thank him for, Peta.
Peta Credlin:
Yeah, there is not… And I’m getting a bit skinny on all of that. I think it’s the 50th anniversary of the dismissal. So come November, there’ll be the bleeding hearts and the ranting and the anguish we’ll see from the left. But I’ll make sure whenever that’s mentioned, we put that picture up. Three flags, Gough, and the glory of the Aussie flag. Thank you to you both
This transcript of Daniel Wild speaking on Credlin – Sky News Australia from 16 September 2025 has been edited for clarity.
