In this interview Mia Schlicht appeared on The Kenny Report – Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on the views of mainstream Australians towards the ABC.
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.
Chris Kenny:
Back to the contest of ideas, and I want to talk about how the ABC is letting us down yet again. The billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded broadcaster should be one place where we are guaranteed respectful debates from all perspectives. But according to data from stream media monitoring provided by the free market think tank, the IPA, over the last 12 months, the IPA has received 270 mentions and appearances on the ABC compared with 2,684 for the hard left Australia Institute, 10 times more appearances. Hardly objective and impartial, the ABC is it.
Let me bring in Mia Schlicht, who’s a research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs. Good to speak to you, Mia. Look, I dug out these figures today because I had a hunch. I knew that for years, none of the IPA people were invited onto the Drum programme, and then the programme fell over. I see the Australia Institute people, including former ABC journos on the ABC all the time, but they don’t seem to come to the IPA for opinions very often. Presumably you send them plenty.
Mia Schlicht:
No, that’s exactly right, Chris. I mean, we’re not exactly being flooded with requests from the ABC to have us on their programmes, but the reality is is that the ABC is just not the cultural institution it once was. And mainstream Australians understand that, and that’s why they’re turning off. If you don’t live in inner city Melbourne, if you don’t live in inner city Sydney, then the ABC simply does not espouse your views. And we’re seeing this reflected time and time to get in their ratings, which are just on the constant decline. And it’s why we’re seeing programmes like their flagship Q&A programme that was recently cancelled because mainstream Australians are just turning off.
Chris Kenny:
But the point is that they’re actually obliged by law, the ABC charter is law, they’re obliged to be objective and get different viewpoints. Now, we know they’re all left wing, they don’t have any conservatives within. So if you can’t get a conservative or free market or right of centre perspective from within your own ranks, surely the easy way to do it is to tap on the organisation like yourselves where you’re a free-market think tank. There are other independent think tanks like CIS, but the ABC seems to ignore them.
Mia Schlicht:
Oh, yeah, that’s exactly right. And what happens is if they brought the IPA on one of their channels, I’m sure there’d be some kind of debate, which they’re not quite willing to engage in. And we’ve seen that in multiple interviews. I mean, just recently, Sarah Ferguson had an Israeli minister on the programme who that she didn’t agree with, and she steamrolled the guest, she wouldn’t let him speak. And this happens time and time again. And what’s interesting is the ABC is the first institution to point out the bias of other institutions and hold themselves on that platform, but they don’t hold themselves to the same standard.
Chris Kenny:
Yeah. It is a tragedy for the country, especially when we can see around the world what the lack of free debate, the lack of open debate does.
One thing that I do notice, on the very rare occasions that anyone from the IPA gets on the ABC radio or, god forbid, television, they describe your organisation, excuse me, as a conservative think tank, I think, or even hard-right think tank. When the Australia Institute, which is really hard left, it pops up, they use that lovely name, the Australia Institute, it sounds very reasonable. It’s never described as a leftist or a socialist think tank. Do you think they’re being fair and honest in the descriptions of the organisations they get on?
Mia Schlicht:
No, they’re certainly not being fair in those descriptions at all. I mean, that’s what they’ll do, is they’ll label certain institutions in a certain box to frame their views in a certain way, I think in some kind of attempt to turn viewers off. But what’s interesting now is that the mainstream Australians are actually coming across. So when they’re sitting there labelling the IPA as a conservative think tank thinking that will turn people off, that’s actually what people are wanting to listen to, that’s what they’re wanting to hear. They’re craving for a diversity of viewpoints, and they’re not getting it on that platform, and that’s why they’re turning off.
Chris Kenny:
It’s actually helping. Thanks very much, Mia. I appreciate it. Mia Schlicht there from the Institute of Public Affairs. How about that? 10 times as many mentions and appearances by the hard left Australia Institute compared to the IPA. It’s the one thing you think they’d get right is have a diversity of views. They’re required to under law.
We’re going to…
This transcript of Mia Schlicht on The Kenny Report – Sky News Australia from 15 September 2025 has been edited for clarity.
