In this interview, Daniel Wild appeared on The Rita Panahi Show 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.
Danica De Giorgio:
… Now is Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Daniel Wild. Daniel, good to see you as always. Thanks for joining us. Australia is adding a new migrant every single minute. According to analysis by the Institute of Public Affairs, the government has already exceeded its net overseas migration target of 395,000 for the most recent financial year. Daniel, Big Australia is getting even bigger. Has labour duded at us with their promise to bring migration numbers back to sustainable levels?
Daniel Wild:
Well, the migration programme is not working in the national interest. We’ve known that for some time now, and the latest figures just confirm that. We’ve had over a million net migrants arrive here over the last two years. And of course, we all want to be a migration nation and migrants have played a very important role in our economic history and will in our future, but it’s just got to be planned for. We know that there’s the social services, the schools, the rows, the hospitals, the housing have not kept up with this dramatic surge to migration.
It’s the biggest expansion to our population in our nation’s history. And all you have to do is look at the per capita growth numbers. Well, they’re going backwards. So mass migration is making Australians poorer, and I don’t have confidence that this government is going to get it under control.
Danica De Giorgio:
No. And people will vote for this at the ballot box because they can’t get into homes, the rental queues are just getting more and more ridiculous, and there’s no doubt that migration is a key part of the problem here, so the figures are just spiralling out of control. Now, look, Tenacious D has cancelled the rest of its Australian tour after band member Kyle Gass wished the next person to try to assassinate Trump wouldn’t miss. Front man, Jack Black has been accused of abandoning Gass. He posted to social media saying, “I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form.”
Daniel, the left have always thought that Jack Black was some sort of a funny man, some sort of a cool dude. Is he now just desperately trying to salvage his own career?
Daniel Wild:
Look, maybe it is. I’m sort of happy to take Jack Black out his word that he does not want to associate himself with that. And I think we sort of have a charitable view. But I mean, this gets to a bigger issue really, which is why just don’t have politics inserted into every part of our life. We’ve seen it in sport. We’re seeing it in music. Everywhere we go, there’s some kind of political statement that has to be made and it divides the community. I mean, I’m sure at least half of the people that were at that concert didn’t agree with it or didn’t feel comfortable with what was said.
So I think the lesson here is for those in the entertainment industry and in the sporting industry, just stay out of politics and focus on what brings us together. Music and other cultural matters, they should bring the community together, not be used as a platform for politics. So I hope that’s one of the lessons that comes out of this.
Danica De Giorgio:
Absolutely. Leave politics out of there. Let us just go to a concert and not have that shoved in our faces. Now, Kevin Rudd has revealed he had opened a texting relationship with Republican Vice Presidential Candidate JD Vance, who of course Donald Trump announced as his running mate. The ambassador told the Australian, “I certainly conveyed to him,” being Vance, “my comments immediately following the assassination attempt in terms of qualities he brings to this office. That’s of course a matter for American domestic political opinion, something which as an ambassador I don’t propose to engage in.”
He also told Joe Hockey exclusively on Sky News he’s seen a much more toned down Trump at this convention.
Kevin Rudd:
Well, when Donald Trump came in here last night at the convention, I was here with Therese, you could see on his face that he had been affected by the events of Saturday. This was not the normal all fist pumping Donald Trump. This was a more reflective Donald Trump. And as others have said to me today, who know the president far better than I do, he’s actually been moved by the event itself and of course, the outpouring of national and international opinion in support of him, in terms of this assassination attempt.
Danica De Giorgio:
Daniel, we know what Rudd has said in the past about Trump. Is he trying to get on good terms with the Republicans ahead of November?
Daniel Wild:
Kevin Rudd’s a shocker. He’s got a hand in his badge. I don’t think that we can have any confidence that he’s going to be able to represent Australia’s national interest to in an upcoming potential Trump administration. Sending an unsolicited text message to JD Vance is not exactly the height of diplomacy. He’s got a track record, as you rightly identify, of saying all kinds of negative things about Trump. He wasn’t thinking ahead, and now he’s trying to pretend that he’s got some kind of working relationship. But this is also a test of Anthony Albanese.
Is he actually going to make Rudd stand down and replace him with someone who can represent our interests or is he going to stick by his mate to the detriment of our nation?
Danica De Giorgio:
Absolutely. I completely agree with you. It’d be interesting to see how that pans out. Now, prominent Australian doctor Nick Coatsworth has hit out at a proposed tax on sugary treats, arguing that $8 cans of Coke will only punish the poor and fail to fix the nation’s obesity crisis. What do you think, Daniel? Is he right?
Daniel Wild:
Well, Nick Coatsworth is spot on. Good on him for speaking out on this issue. We all want people to be healthy and to be living healthy lifestyles, but putting in more taxes that’s going to increase the cost of everyday items is not the road to a healthy country. This is just a lazy tax grab proposal that’s been done in other countries and has been relatively ineffective. And I think it gets to a bigger issue, which is that Australians are really losing confidence in the medical establishment, which I think is a shame.
But we saw what happened in COVID, for example, where the that we were receiving, we now know with the benefit of hindsight was not particularly accurate or useful in many situations. So we should not go down the path of putting in a sugar tax. It’s about personal responsibility. By all means, provide information, provide education, make sure people can make informed choices. But when it comes to adults, we’ve got to be free to make our own choices on these issues. And good on Nick Coatsworth for calling this out.
Danica De Giorgio:
Spot on. We are adults. Let us decide. Now before we let you go, the Greens have attacked the US alliance, claiming it increases the risk of conflict, undermines Australian sovereignty and comprises stable relations with Beijing. Daniel, how dangerous is this party? What on earth are they on about?
Daniel Wild:
The Greens are very dangerous. They’ve done more than any political party to delegitimize Australia, calling us a racist nation, saying that we’re founded on stolen land, saying that we should be ashamed of ourselves, refusing to stand in front of our national flag and much, much worse besides. So what the Greens say is incredibly dangerous. We need the United States. The United States is not perfect, but it is overwhelmingly a force for good in the world. In addition to the fact that we simply as a middle-sized nation cannot defend ourselves.
We need either the UK or the US or a large nation to provide that defence umbrella. Now, we should be doing much more ourselves to advance our own national security capabilities, but our alliance with the US is absolutely fundamental.
Danica De Giorgio:
And it has been for a very long time. Daniel Wild, good to have you on. Thank you so much for joining us.
This transcript with Daniel Wild talking on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 17 July 2024 has been edited for clarity.
