In this interview Adam Creighton appeared on 2SM Mornings with Chris Smith to discuss the IPA’s research into Australia’s declining standard of living.
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 Smith:
Adam Creighton is an award-winning columnist and foreign correspondent. He’s currently a senior fellow and chief economist with the Institute of Public Affairs. We love having him on a weekly basis. He joins us today. Adam, welcome to the Super Radio Network once again.
Adam Creighton:
Good morning, Chris. Great to be here.
Chris Smith:
Lots to talk about. It’s a matter of what not to talk about, not what we have on our plate. We’ve got a flat lining economy according to yesterday’s sobering growth figures. So we’re talking about zero productivity, weak business investment, and low economic growth. But I got the impression from what Jim Chalmers said at that press conference yesterday, we’re supposed to consider ourselves lucky. Is the treasurer snowing us here?
Adam Creighton:
Yes, he certainly is. Those figures were so embarrassing and also very worrying. It’s just another data point that points to our economic decline. I mean, we have population growth out of control as I’m sure your listeners know. And yet the economy grew 0.2% in the first three months of the year, which is hopeless. So per person, it went backwards, it shrank again. And, indeed, since coming to office, the Albanese government has actually overseen nine quarters now of negative per capita growth. And that’s out of the 11 that they’ve had. So it’s a really atrocious record. I mean, it’s extraordinary actually that they were re-elected on those figures. It’s very shocking. But, look, there’s no positive spin to put on those GDP figures. It’s very worrying. And the treasurer really should own up to it and say, “Look, this is bad and we need to make changes. We need to cut some regulations, we need to cut taxes.”
But, of course, as you know, on the contrary, the opposite is happening. We’re getting more regulation of the economy, we’re getting more tax. So it was not a good day for Australia’s economy yesterday.
Chris Smith:
But he kept coming back to this reason, I guess, or this excuse that given what’s happening around the world, we’re doing fantastic.
Adam Creighton:
Well, I don’t think that makes any sense. I mean, I think the US is growing very strongly, so I don’t really know what he’s talking about there. There’s a lot of growth around the world. We should be growing very fast. We’ve got population growth of almost 2% a year, and yet the economy only grew 0.2% in three months. So it doesn’t make sense what he is saying there. The economy should be growing very rapidly, but it’s not.
Chris Smith:
And these figures with businesses going into administration, etc., in the last three years, all the evidence you need to evaluate how bad the economy is.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, that’s true. Look, the growth we have is largely driven by the public sector. It’s hiring more public servants. That’s both at the federal and the state level. I mean, there’ve been extra tens of thousands of those. And also in the quasi-public sector, the NDIS sector, the so-called care economy. I mean, these may technically be private sector jobs, but they’re all ultimately funded with taxpayer money, and it’s quite an unproductive industry, those ones I just mentioned. And so that’s why your productivity is sagging. So, yeah, look, it’s bad all around those figures.
Chris Smith:
Jim Chalmers is clearly at odds, Adam, with the boss, Anthony Albanese over their new super tax on unrealized assets. Albo will work with the coalition he said this week, and the Treasurer says he will not. What do you make of that?
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, look, it’s really interesting. I saw it as a glimmer of hope that the Prime Minister might put his foot down and try to appear the great unifier and have some bipartisanship. But we’ve seen from the Treasurer over the last couple of days that he’s crushed that. He said, no, he’s playing politics, I think, which is very unfortunate. Look, we just had the election. Could we put that aside for a bit? And he’s trying to use it to split the coalition, but this is an area where personally I would like to see the tax become less bad. It’s a horrible tax. I don’t want it at all. So I prefer that the Liberals make it less bad.
But on the other hand, I can understand why the Liberals want to put a stake in the ground and say, this is bad, and we will just oppose it out of principle. So I’m a little bit torn there, but the reality is the Greens want it through, and they want a worse version. They want a $2 million threshold, not $3 million. So, look, let’s just wait and see. I still hold out some hope that the Prime Minister will put his foot down and say, no, no, we’re going to negotiate with the coalition.
Chris Smith:
We’ve had some other gobsmacking numbers revealed this week by you personally, the cost of Net Zero nine billion. And that doesn’t include the Monstrous Transmission Network Project of 10,000 kilometres across the country we’re trying to build. And it doesn’t include the subsidies given to foreign companies to build 250 metre high wind turbines, does it?
Adam Creighton:
No, look, that’s totally true. Look, your listeners should know, and I’m sure many of them do, that the cost of Net Zero to the Australian economy is trillions of dollars over the next 30 years, and those costs largely fall on households and businesses. But in that research note I did, I decided just to look at the federal government. What is it actually spending with taxpayer’s money on this Net Zero fantasy? And I was shocked at the growth. So in about three years, it’s grown 420% they’re spending to $9 billion a year. That’s really serious money. I mean, if you add all the Net Zero and climate change programmes up, actually, it would be in the top 20 most expensive government expenditures now, and this is from 10 years ago when the federal government was spending about $500 million a year. Now it’s $9 billion. So when you hear the government say, “Oh, we can’t afford extra defence spending, we can’t afford this, we can’t afford that,” remember, they’re spending $9 billion a year every year on this Net Zero fantasy.
Chris Smith:
What does that work out in terms of taxpaying families? Can you break that down?
Adam Creighton:
I think I did do back then. It’s about $1,500 a year I think for a four person household. So, you know, it’s significant, right? And it’s worse than that because all this money’s being borrowed actually at 5% interest largely from foreigners.
Chris Smith:
But, Adam, it’ll solve global warming, won’t it?
Adam Creighton:
I mean, what an absolute joke. Oh, actually, I should have pointed out, I mean, emissions aren’t even falling, I mean, with all that spending. It’s comical.
Chris Smith:
Yeah, the whole world seems to be closing down coal-fired power stations and demonising gas-fired power stations. So we’re technically doing all we can to get rid of CO₂ emissions, but CO₂ emissions are at a record level.
Adam Creighton:
Yes, I know. And, of course, we export all the coal and the gas. We’re quite happy for other countries to use it to so-called pollute the environment. But we won’t use it ourselves. I mean, it’s so much crazy vanity and stupidity, and I just hope the Australian people wake up sooner rather than later.
Chris Smith:
I see that the institute has also released a new survey on our flag. I’ve spoken about it at length both my views on this and also with our listeners. Overwhelmingly, the public is not happy about the indigenous flags receiving the same billing as the Australian flag. There’s really no priority given to the Australian flag, is there?
Adam Creighton:
No, that’s certainly true. And look, the IPA has done some research, a survey on this, and as you’d expect, 71% of Australians believe our flag unites us, 77% are proud of it, 75% think we should keep our national flag. These are very large majorities, and yet the so-called intelligentsia of Australia, as you know, they like to parade around all these other flags at the same time, or even not have the Australian flag, which I think some kindergartner I think in the Mornington Shire put out a pamphlet without the Australian flag on it at all, just the Aboriginal flag and the Torres Strait flag, I believe, which is outrageous.
Yeah, look, extremely disappointing. But I think hats off to the Mornington Shire Councillors. I understand they’ve actually pushed back on this, and I hope that more Australians see that this is insidious. I might add, I spent a few years in the US recently, and you would never see that sort of behaviour in the US even amongst Democrats. They would never put other flags next to the US flag.
Chris Smith:
Never
Adam Creighton:
Any paraphernalia. And the US does a much better job of patriotism than we do, I must say. I don’t know what’s wrong with us on this question.
Chris Smith:
Well, the more you display other flags, the less chance you have of heading down the same united track on patriotism. That seems to be the problem to me.
Adam Creighton:
Certainly true.
Chris Smith:
Now, news without notice, this has just come through from the United States, we know that we had that recent anti-Semitic firebombing in Boulder, Colorado. Well, Donald Trump says he’s now reacted to that. He has announced a total ban on citizens from 12 countries entering the United States and a partial ban on several more nations in a move that partly revives a controversial measure from his first term. Nationals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen will be banned from travelling to the US from Monday. And he cited the Boulder Colorado event as rationale for the move. He says, “We don’t want them in the 21st Century.” We’ve seen one terror attack after another, carried out by visa over stayers from dangerous places all over the world. How is this going to go down?
Adam Creighton:
Well, I think it’ll go down well with most Americans, and I think we need to take a leaf out of that book. We should get back to what John Howard famously said, that we’ll decide who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come.
Chris Smith:
Yes.
Adam Creighton:
We just basically let everyone in. And, of course, lefties will say, “Oh, it’s unfair, blah, blah, blah.” But it’s the perfect sovereign right of the United States to decide who enters the country. And if they think statistically on average that people coming from X, Y, or Z are not helpful, then why should they let them in? And we should have the same view.
Chris Smith:
Yeah. It doesn’t mean that everyone from that country is a threat to us, but it does mean that you’re cutting out the threat.
Adam Creighton:
Yes, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. I mean, the reality is all the world would like to move to the US. You can’t let everyone in, so they have to make choices about who comes and who doesn’t.
Chris Smith:
Yeah, big news.
Adam Creighton:
You say the same thing about us.
Chris Smith:
Yeah. Big news out of Washington. And it does, I think, have a degree of, I think, connection to the way we allow so many people into this country as well. Adam Creighton, great to have you on the programme, mate. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Adam Creighton:
Thanks very much, Chris.
Chris Smith:
All right. Adam Creighton, senior fellow and chief economist with the Institute of Public Affairs. He talks as much common sense as we need for an entire week. Love having him on the programme.
This transcript of Adam Creighton on 2SM Mornings with Chris Smith from 5 June 2025 has been edited for clarity.
