In this interview Adam Creighton appeared on Credlin – Sky News Australia to 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.
Steve Price:
Welcome back, Steve Price with you. Let’s get back into this issue of net-zero. Now, the coalition is rightly debating this, the UN’s climate chief, or a bureaucrat, he really is not a chief, he’s ramped up the apocalyptic climate rhetoric like you’d never believe.
It was on the page one of The Australian today, he says, “Australia, if we don’t have reasonable targets, we’ll let the world overheat, fruit will be a once a year luxury.” Here are some of Simon Stiell’s comments on where else? ABC Radio.
Simon Stiell:
For Australia, the predictions are by 2050, climate change will… there’ll be a loss of, a GDP loss of somewhere in the region of $6.8 trillion to Australia based on the climate impacts. So yes, you have economic benefits from that business as usual, but you have the economic costs, which far, far outstrip that.
Steve Price:
Well, I described this bloke as a bald ageing version of Greta Thunberg earlier in the programme. Joining me now to discuss this and more, columnist for The Spectator, Terry Barnes, and Senior Fellow and Chief Economist at the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Creighton. Welcome to you both.
Terry, I mean, seriously, they fly in these people. What a sinecure, this job at the UN, I mean, I don’t know how you get one of those jobs, but it’d be wonderful to do. Then starts lecturing Australia and comes out. Even Chris Bowen has said this stuff’s over the top, that you’d only be able to have fruit and vegetables once a year if we don’t do more.
Terry Barnes:
I’d only have fruit and vegetables once a year now. But when it comes to Mr. Stiell, and what a, “Stiell by name, Stiell by nature.” But how did he fly here, Steve? Did he flap his wings? No. He came business class on a jumbo jet emitting everywhere he went.
But the bottom line is he’s coming here picking on a country which he thinks is easy pickings. I mean, less than 1% of world emissions.
Steve Price:
Correct.
Terry Barnes:
What about China? What about Russia?
Steve Price:
No, they never talk about that.
Terry Barnes:
Yeah.
Steve Price:
I mean, Adam and I looked up a bit of this bloke’s background. He was a minor minister in the Grenada government, and when he lost office then it was a conservative government apparently, he turned himself into a property developer. And he’s out here lecturing us.
Adam Creighton:
No, it’s, no look, it is completely outrageous. And of course, it was very funny to hear just a few hours later from Ross Garnaut that we’re not going to hit our emissions target. So it looks like fruit and vegetables, they’re gone. But just on the emissions point, I mean, China and India burn more coal than Australia in a week, and they’ve massively increased their emissions.
So I mean, he really should be directing his remarks at those nations, but of course he’s not going to do that, because there’d be significant pushback.
Steve Price:
Well this is no place for developing nations, aren’t they? That’s why they can get away with this stuff.
Adam Creighton:
Yes.
Terry Barnes:
They throw in India as well, because that’s what, they’re the third biggest emitter.
Steve Price:
So the CSIRO even has come out today with its gen costs report in terms of contributing to the low cost of power, and they still say that at right now, Terry, coal is the cheapest version of producing electricity.
Terry Barnes:
That’s right. While solar and wind are going up and up and up at a great rate, I think it’s 20% change over from last year, but they don’t look at the full cost of these things. They don’t look at the fact that there are capital costs in making these things happen.
They don’t look at the fact that taxpayers subsidise these industries to keep them competitive with fossil fuels. I mean, they don’t see the whole picture because they don’t want to. I mean, it’s again, the fix is in as far as the way that, well, the CSIRO and the energy market operator have gone about.
This just fits in with the Chris Bowen’s agenda.
Steve Price:
Adam Dantian made a valid point today that when we hear from Chris Bowen and this argument about costing, he doesn’t even talk about the impact of renewables on heavy industry, small business, transport, and agriculture.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, look, that’s right. I mean just-
Steve Price:
I’m talking about your household electricity.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, well, just on the idea that renewables are cheaper. I mean, every Australian household could just look at their bills and see they’re basically tripled now in 15 years. So the idea that renewables are cheap is clearly farcical in reality. And if you just take the coal industry, there’s 50,000 jobs directly and 300,000 good jobs indirectly around Australia that depend on that industry.
So the idea that we’re going to shut that down is just complete lunacy. But of course, that is the demand, that we shut down that major export industry, our second-largest industry. These people must think that the Australian dollar won’t fall to 45 cents. So maybe they’ll wake up when they can’t afford to go to Europe anymore for their [inaudible 00:04:31]-
Steve Price:
Has anyone ever done a costing on what sort of hole would be blown in the budget if we stopped exporting coal?
Adam Creighton:
Well, straight away it’d be about $30 billion. I mean, I can just do that off the top of my head because [inaudible 00:04:44]-
Steve Price:
Well, where’s that money going to come from, and what services get cut when 30 billion-
Adam Creighton:
Yeah.
Steve Price:
… gets rammed out of the-
Adam Creighton:
I know. I know.
Steve Price:
… budget?
Adam Creighton:
They don’t understand that, but I think increasingly people are waking up. I mean, you’re seeing a lot of renewable projects are falling by the wayside. The offshore wind projects. I mean, there was one in Gippsland, I think earlier this year that was cancelled, and it’s happening in the UK, it’s happening in New Jersey, and the US.
The economics just doesn’t stack up even with the subsidies. It’s just very expensive, and people are seeing this all around the world, and not just expensive, but also unreliable and dangerous in some cases as we saw in Spain.
Steve Price:
Terry, I spoke with Alex Ryvchin earlier in the programme. We saw a very ugly protest in Melbourne on Sunday at the NGV. The gallery had to be actually put into lockdown, little kids who were there to go to a Wiggles concert next door at the Entertainment Centre were caught up in the middle of this.
It all seemed to be aimed at the fact that some of the great benefactors for the NGV include the Gandel family that own Chadstone, at least New South Wales is tougher on this stuff. Because these protesters wanted to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in protest on Sunday. Christopher Minns, the Premier there, said, “Nope, you’re not going to do it. They’ve got a permit system for marches.”
Police have come out this afternoon and said, “We’re not going to give you a permit, and we’ll go to the Supreme Court to enforce that.” Why can’t Victoria wake up? Well, we know the answer. I’ll ask you the question. You give me the obvious answer.
Why have we not got a permit system, and why don’t we stop icons of our city being shut down by these protests every Sunday?
Terry Barnes:
Oh, absolutely, Steve. I mean, but look at what the Victorian government has actually said. I mean, Jacinda Allan, the Premier, has basically sort of battered away, but the Multicultural Affairs Minister, Ingrid Stitt, basically said, “Oh, we had peaceful protests. We don’t interfere with peaceful protests.” I don’t see putting red dye in the pool outside of the National Gallery as [inaudible 00:06:35]-
Steve Price:
Then they attacked Toll Holdings last night. Adam, why don’t we have a permit system?
Adam Creighton:
Well, look, I don’t know. I mean, it’s probably intricacies of state law, but the broader point here is at the same time, we’re all upset about this, Australia is still importing 10s of thousands of people from around the world that loathe Israel, and there’s going to be more and more protests.
So, we need to take a hard look at our migration system and ask whether this is serving the national interest anymore.
Steve Price:
Terry, Adam, thanks for coming-
Adam Creighton:
Yeah.
Steve Price:
… in.
Adam Creighton:
Thanks Steve.
Steve Price:
Appreciate it very much.
This transcript of Adam Creighton on Credlin – Sky News Australia from 29 July 2025 has been edited for clarity.
