Chris Smith:
I now have Adam Creighton on the line. Good day Adam.
Adam Creighton:
Good morning Chris. I’m sorry about that before.
Chris Smith:
That’s okay. This has to be the most polite and telegraphed leadership challenge in living memory.
Adam Creighton:
Yes, it certainly does. It’s the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. Definitely. No, they’re both very polite to each other and I mean, I don’t think Angus Taylor’s really said a bad word at all about Susan personally or anything, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. It’s probably going to be close, I assume, but I mean, Angus wouldn’t have challenged if he didn’t think he had the numbers, but of course, secret ballot, no one really knows until the actual vote.
Chris Smith:
Yes. Interesting. He’s just logged something or put it online. He’s put an address down the camera, which he’s obviously recorded back when he was in Goulburn on his farm, and so therefore he probably recorded it over the weekend before he came into town in Canberra. So this was well telegraphed and he had it planned right to the nth degree.
Adam Creighton:
Yes. Now look, I just heard it 57 seconds and he looks very relaxed and confident, but he doesn’t really talk about policy at all. And that’s obviously what we are more interested in at ICA, obviously. And I think Australians should be too. The liberal party is at a loss, I think, as to what they stand for at the moment. So if there is a change, then let’s hope that that leads to a stronger policy focus. I mean, after all, they’ve dumped net-zero, but that was many months ago and they haven’t talked about it at all.
Chris Smith:
No. Is Angus Taylor the best of an average bunch, do you think?
Adam Creighton:
Look, I mean, he’s an extremely intelligent man. He went to Oxford, he did a Master’s of Economics. He was extremely successful in the private sector at top consulting firms. I mean, he’s got a very sharp mind. He’s probably intellectually the smartest the party has. Now that doesn’t, as we know, necessarily translate into leadership. But look, I think well, he’s the only one who put his hand up so far, but you never know. There could be someone who comes in at the last minute. That’s happened before in the past. I think it happened with Scott Morrison, didn’t it? And he ended up Prime Minister. Let’s just wait and see.
Chris Smith:
So we have a 54 billion dollar black hole in the budget. And didn’t the national senator Matt Canavan put finance minister Katy Gallagher in her place on this yesterday to remind our listeners, let’s hear the audio.
Matt Canavan:
I think you should both resign.
Katy Gallagher:
6.3 billion dollars should be paid.
Matt Canavan:
If you made a 10 billion error in a public company, you’d be out the door.
Katy Gallagher:
You are a joke, senator Canavan.
Matt Canavan:
You’d be out the door. $30 billion dollars of cost buyout.
It’s your budget and you don’t know where 30 billion dollars went. Is it under the couch? Is it behind the TV? Where is the 30 billion dollars?
My point is, why you minister don’t understand where 30 billion went missing. You don’t seem to be across your own budget.
Katy Gallagher:
Well, I don’t know where you were when we released my EFO, but I spoke about this at length.
Matt Canavan:
Well, obviously you didn’t read it. If I were in your shoes, I would be holding myself to account, which you are not. You’re making excuses when you have wasted, you have totally missed 10 billion dollars on one programme. And so this is why we have the highest interest rates in the developed world right now.
Chris Smith:
Could it be behind the couch, do you think, Adam?
Adam Creighton:
Look, it certainly speaks to the incompetence of this government. And it’s so sad that this isn’t getting enough focus given all the liberal leadership issues. If only Matt Canavan were the finance minister, we’d be in a better place. But 54 billion of lost revenue, sorry, of extra spending that they hadn’t forecast is very embarrassing and just speaks to the incompetence of this government where the debt’s approaching a trillion dollars. That’s just the federal debt. Mind you, the states are about 660 billion on top of that. So the country’s not in a great space economically at the moment, and sadly we’re not doing anything about it.
Chris Smith:
Just to update you on what’s happening in Canberra, James Patterson has quit the shadow front bench. He’s the fifth to go. And I also think that, is it Jeremy Duniam? He’s also gone.
Adam Creighton:
Yes, he’s Andrew Hastie’s [inaudible 00:04:12].
Chris Smith:
That’s right. He’s gone as well. So they’re lining up to pull the plug. And this could happen tomorrow morning. So by the time we get to this time tomorrow, we might know who could be leading the liberal party.
Adam Creighton:
Yes. Well, that could mean that Angus is going to win because obviously you get paid a lot more if you’re a shadow minister and you’re only going to give that up if you think the next guy is going to make you a shadow minister. So it’s kind of a snowball effect at this stage. So let’s just see what happens over the next few hours. I think it’s 26 votes, is it? Out of 51? Something like that?
Chris Smith:
Yep. Johnathan Duniam, I should say. Not Jeremy. Jonathan Duniam. And despite all the BS from the Treasurer over why government spending couldn’t possibly lead to inflation, Adam, in Senate estimates yesterday, Treasury spokesman, Damian White gave him up. It is because of spending. So Damian White said, I wonder whether Damian White got a call from the Treasurer today.
Adam Creighton:
Well, he probably knows it because he’s already obvious he’s a man. He’s not going to be promoted any further. So he’s decided to speak his mind. He’s the Deputy Treasury secretary. And yes, he was unusually candid. At first there was reluctance from the bureaucrats to say whether it was mainly spending issue or revenue issue. And then I think he popped up and said, no, it was more like 60% spending issue. So look, he may have, but at the end of the day, the Treasurer’s not going to sack him for that. He’s already deputy secretary. It was good. It was a flicker or a glimmer of hope that the bureaucracy is still what it used to be [inaudible 00:05:45], which is fairly independent of the government. That’s obviously not the case anymore, but maybe Damian. Maybe Damian is.
Chris Smith:
But the RBA, they’re still running interference for the Treasurer with the deputy governor saying they need to stay in their lane. Adam, that’s not right. They just need to tell the truth, don’t they?
Adam Creighton:
Well, yeah, especially the Reserve Bank. And this is an institution that I worked for many years ago, three, four years. It’s filled four, three or four years rather. It’s filled with extremely bright people. And I must say I’ve only been disappointed with their attitude to federal spending. They’re an independent institution more or less. And I don’t know why they’re not being more candid about the extraordinary growth in spending, which of course is contributing to inflation. And then last week you had this ridiculous, ridiculous academic debate about public and private demand. I mean, it was just comical, really. But I think one of the problems is that Michelle Bullock, the governor, who I know, she’s a lovely lady. She actually hired me many years ago, but she gets a seven-year term, I think, and she can be reappointed. So I think the reappointment possibility should go frankly for Reserve bank Governors because that means that if they want to get reappointed, and of course they would, it’s a good job, then they’re going to please the government of the day. And I think if they couldn’t be reappointed, they’d be more honest.
Chris Smith:
Yeah. Stop the sucking up and just tell us the truth. Anti-Semitism, Adam, why do so many in the arts community think it’s okay to hurl barbs at Jewish people when the rest of us have kind of got the message? We’ve now got the boss of Creative Australia, Adrian Collette. He’s standing by this illustrator who receives big taxpayer grants from the organisation, by the way, despite the illustrator writing in a newsletter straight after the Bondi Massacre, that he wouldn’t be mourning fascists. So those 15 dead people were fascists. Were they? What a disgraceful statement.
Adam Creighton:
No, it’s obviously disgusting. It’s just these people are supposed to be intelligent. They must be on one level to have reached the jobs they have, but they certainly lack emotional intelligence. I mean, what a horrific thing to say. Not only then, but even now, this institution’s a publicly funded one. I think if you’re in a publicly funded institution, you should not be political at all. And the arts community more generally, when it’s not publicly funded, it tends to be funded by the Jewish community because they’re so successful and generous in their donations.
Chris Smith:
It’s true.
Adam Creighton:
So I just think it’s very foolish of them to make these statements. And they’re already, the arts community outside government is already losing money for this sort of behaviour. So if they want a job, they should shut up.
Chris Smith:
Yeah, they’re not doing themselves any favours. All right. We watch with the popcorn and see what happens, transpires in the next 24 hours. Adam Creighton, thank you very much for your time.
Adam Creighton:
Thank you.
Chris Smith:
All right, senior fellow and chief Economist with the Institute of Public Affairs.
This transcript of Adam Creighton on Mornings with Chris Smith 2SM from 12 February 2026 has been edited for clarity.
