Chris Smith:
Senior fellow and chief economist with the Institute of Public Affairs, Adam Creighton, welcome.
Adam Creighton:
Good morning, Chris.
Chris Smith:
I’m sorry that you come on the back of that little argument.
Adam Creighton:
No, that’s all right.
Chris Smith:
But to say that the government, to believe the government when it says, “We did not help the ISIS brides,” I don’t believe that for one second, do you?
Adam Creighton:
No. No, look, I certainly don’t. Well, they had to take an action to bring them back, so they obviously helped them in that sense. Well, I do understand why they did it. It was probably for marginal seats in Sydney and Melbourne.
Chris Smith:
Yep.
Adam Creighton:
That’s the reason that they came back. That’s the reason. And I just think it’s sad that they did. I think in many other nations, they had more self-respect and they wouldn’t have come back. The government would not have let them back. So I think it will cost them votes in other seats, but maybe it shows up those seats in Western Sydney, et cetera, but we’ll see. We’ll have to wait until.
Chris Smith:
Well, the fact that the father of one of the women today is quoted in the newspaper as saying he wants to thank Anthony Albanese for bringing back his daughter indicates to me that many voters in those electorates that you refer to are very, very supportive of what the government has done to bring the ISIS wives back.
Adam Creighton:
Yes. Look, from the government’s point of view, they quite like the politics. I think they shore up those important seats in Sydney and Melbourne that they need to hold with very high Muslim populations and they infuriate other people. And from the Labor’s point of view, they hope that that fury is seen by more centrist people as somehow bigoted in some way. I certainly don’t believe that obviously, but that’s the policies of it.
Chris Smith:
Yeah. Okay. The budget legislation tabled today, it’s going to be packaged with negative gearing, capital gains tax, and also the lolly of a tax break for most Australians. This is wedged politics large, isn’t it?
Adam Creighton:
Yes. Yes. Look, it certainly is. You could have one policy without the other. There’s no need to put them in the same law, but this sort of behaviour happens all the time because now, of course, when the coalition opposes the measures, they’ll be accused of denying a tax cut. And to my understanding, isn’t this tax cut the $250 rebate, which is just pathetic in any case? And it’s not even starting for a few years. And by the time it starts, it will have been overwhelmed by bracket creep anyway.
And we saw just yesterday the inflation figures came out. And if you get rid of all the volatile items, it’s 3.4%, which is very, very high, far, far, far above the reserve bank’s range. And so you’ve got that, say, 3.5% inflation every year. Well, that’s basically the amount the tax scale should be being indexed. This wages roughly track the CPI, and they’re not. So the tax increase of not moving the brackets is far, far greater than the $250.
Chris Smith:
Oh, you’re being too harsh. I’m looking forward to my 68 cents a day. Come on.
Adam Creighton:
Exactly. Well, I don’t think you’re getting it for a few years. But then there’s another one which is laughable too when they’re cutting… And I think that starts in July, but they’re cutting one percentage point off the lowest bracket, which it’s almost like comedy. It’s Monty Python. It’s not reform. It’s just a tiny tweak so they can say they’ve cut taxes when of course they’ve increased them by far more on the other side.
Chris Smith:
Do you think the back flips, the lies on negative gearing and capital gains tax will damage the government or is a 2028 election too far away?
Adam Creighton:
Look, it is far away. And that’s a good question. I don’t have a crystal ball there, so I don’t know. But I think it’s been the worst received budget according to the polling since the ’80s, I think. So as Joe Hockey was joking at the press club just a few days ago when he was speaking, he said this has basically taken the trophy from him for the most unpopular budget ever.
So I think the government would be worried. I mean, young people don’t even like this budget overall. The polling is not supportive of it at all. So I guess the reason they’re trying to ram it through is to get it out of the way, get it out of the headlines. But it’s going to stay in their headlines because there’s going to be all sorts of tweaks over time and changes. So people are constantly going to be reminded of it.
Chris Smith:
The Speaker of the House is demanding that Liberal MP Tim Wilson come into the house today and apologise for a social media post in which he criticised the speaker for suspending him during question time yesterday. It was a silly thing to do, wasn’t it?
Adam Creighton:
Yes. Look, it was. And I mean, the certain thing about parliament is that it’s all just for TV. It’s not really a debating chamber anymore.
Chris Smith:
No.
Adam Creighton:
It’s kind of depressing. I think maybe it was two minds about whether it made sense to televise the thing because when they did that, it just ceased being a functional debating chamber in any way. And the whole thing is just for TV. They just yell at each other and they try to get the best soundbites, the best jokes. And sometimes the jokes are obscene or it’s too nasty or whatever and they get kicked out, which I think used to bring great shame to the individual, but I think increasingly now it’s seen as some sort of badge of honour to be kicked out.
Chris Smith:
Yes.
Adam Creighton:
So it’s a huge waste of money. I think it’s very, very sad. The parliament was set up to be a check on the government. And all the questions in question time from the government side, as you know, are just written by the Prime Minister’s office. And then the backbenchers stand up and they ask the question and then the minister gets up and reads out a fully prepared answer.
Chris Smith:
Right.
Adam Creighton:
That’s not what it was meant to be about.
Chris Smith:
Yeah, it’s Dorothy Dix on steroids. What do you make of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner seriously suggesting that transgender women, biological men could claim to be pregnant, and if they lost a job because of it, they could get a payout or get some kind of recompense?
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, it’s completely insane. I don’t even know what to say about it. It’s just a reminder of how insane parts of Canberra are, how far left and woke and ideological it is. And this woman, I think she’s on probably more than half a million dollars a year or close to it. And I think it’s a guaranteed job for five or six years. It’s just obscene. And then she’s not the only human rights commissioner. There’s about five or six of them with various-
Chris Smith:
Right. Five or six of the same people.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah.
Chris Smith:
Wow. All woke, no doubt.
Adam Creighton:
There’s sex discrimination, race discrimination, disability, the human rights. There’s lots of them. And the whole human rights commission’s probably got $50 million a year funding. And what does it do? It doesn’t actually deal with serious human rights violations like during COVID, for instance, when governments were spraying rubber bullets of people for no reason. They didn’t care about those things. But just nonsense, just garbage like this. I mean, if the Liberals, the Nats, and One Nation was smarter, they’d make more of this stuff and they’d try to pin it on the government and just show voters how insane it is.
Chris Smith:
Yeah. Now as someone who travels the world and speaks to interesting people and covers stories at will, I thought you might be interested in what NASA was planning in terms of accommodation on the moon. They’ve set out their plans, all very attractive and all very space age. If invited, Adam Creighton, would you accept an invitation from NASA to go to the moon?
Adam Creighton:
Look, I probably wouldn’t. I know that’s a boring answer. I’m just giving you the honest answer because I don’t even like flying from Sydney to Melbourne. So I’m always so happy to land again, and that’s just a domestic flight. So I think the idea of me going up to the moon, especially as one of the first guests is highly unlikely.
Chris Smith:
Ah, that’s funny. I didn’t expect that. Adam, thank you very much for your time.
Adam Creighton:
Thanks.
Chris Smith:
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Adam Creighton:
Thanks, Chris. You too. Bye-bye.
Chris Smith:
Adam Creighton. He doesn’t even like flying domestically.
This transcript of Adam Creighton talking on Mornings with Chris Smith 2SM from 28 May 2026 has been edited for clarity.
