In this interview Adam Creighton appeared on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on criminal justice.
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.
Rita Panahi:
Joining me now for more on this is IPA, chief Economist and senior fellow Adam Creighton. Adam, this seems like a great solution. Just ban machetes. Don’t worry about the underlying issues, the youth crime the crime crisis, and I’m sure these thugs are going to be abiding by the new rules and not accessing machetes.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, of course.
Rita Panahi:
And if it’s not a machete, it can be another large bladed weapon.
Adam Creighton:
Exactly. Yeah, look, the focus on machetes I think is somewhat amusing. I don’t think the number of machetes in Victoria has changed dramatically in recent years, and yet we have seen this spike in crime. I think one kind of sad anecdote here on the state of politics in this state is that the machetes were meant to be banned on the 1st of September, but now they’re going to be banned overnight just because of one particular incident. So it just goes to show you how reactive the state government is. There’s really no long-term planning. But on the broader issue of youth crime, this has certainly been increasing recently. This is very, very distressing to see. It would’ve been very scary being at that supermarket that day. And my sense is that certain groups in the community don’t have as much respect for the law. I don’t think that’s kind of [inaudible 00:01:06] saying anything kind of out there.
Rita Panahi:
And the state government for so long has denied that there is a gang issue in this state, particularly youth gangs. And until they acknowledge there is a problem, they’re going to be in no position to solve it. And just banning things isn’t the answer. And the opposition, I’ve got to say, haven’t exactly been groundbreaking on this either. They’re not looking at the broader issues, the underlying issues, and to do with the criminal justice system as well. I mean, look at this case. This is a more youth crime in Victoria, a 16-year-old charged with 70 separate offences, mostly assault related in just the last 12 months while in arguing for bail, the teen’s lawyers told the children’s court that he now self-identifies as First Nations, despite his parents telling police he isn’t. Adam, putting that to one side, it’s just another example of a teen facing serious charges getting bail time and time and time again, the criminal justice system in this state is broken. And you’re right, the Ellen government is reactive. They’re taking measures now, but it all seems to be too little, too late.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, look, certainly in this particular example, this kid does not seem like a good young fellow given all of those charges. But more broadly, I would say in Australia, and you’ll probably thinking I’m going to be soft on crime here, Rita, but we probably have too many non-violent offenders in prison. It costs a huge amount to look after them. I think with the IPA, we did some research last year, it costs about $160,000 a year to keep one person in prison, and the prison population has been growing. 5% it grew last year. That’s three times population growth. So this is billions and billions of dollars a year we’re spending. So there must be a better way with criminals like this guy. He’s probably from a wayward family, perhaps. I don’t know anything about his particular case, but more broadly, we’ve got to try to keep people out of the prison.
Rita Panahi:
Well, that’s an interesting discussion about whether non-violent criminals should just have some sort of a tracking device.
Adam Creighton:
Well, I think, I’d be for that. It’s a lot cheaper. A lot cheaper.
Rita Panahi:
And be confined to home detention. Now, let’s talk about the Australian Electoral Commission holding a partial recount of votes in the seat of Goldstein amid Teal candidate Zoe Daniels’ continued refusal to concede defeat. This is despite the fact that it’s been declared now several times, and she may have forgotten this, but back in 2020, Zoe Daniel lashed Donald Trump on social media posting, Trump has to find an excuse for losing that is not himself because he can’t accept being a loser. Now it’s Zoe Daniel, or should that be Zoe denial that is refusing to accept defeat. Is she a threat to democracy? Do you feel like you can’t sleep at night with this sort of threat in your seat?
Adam Creighton:
Oh, look, it is very funny when the shoe’s on the other foot, and that was a very good find of yours. I think you found that in her Twitter feed, didn’t you?
Rita Panahi:
Oh, no, no. Some other type of person on X found it. I’ve just used it.
Adam Creighton:
But look, I mean, it is embarrassing for her. I mean, I think the footage of her claiming victory will be one of the funniest sets of footage I think in Australian political history. The fact that there’s a recount, that’s somewhat interesting because the trigger’s meant to be a hundred votes. I think it’s 260 votes difference. So they didn’t have to do a recount. I noticed it’s a partial recount, so it’s probably not going to change the outcome. I mean, I think she would’ve been better just not asking for one, especially given the embarrassment I just mentioned earlier.
Rita Panahi:
Well, no, I think she’s holding on to dear life. And the man who beat her, Tim Wilson has posted this on X. He said, I’m concerned about the increasing escalation of commentary from the former member for Goldstein that is trending towards bringing the Australian Electoral Commission’s count into question and needlessly seeding questions about the AEC’s processes. The AEC has been very thorough. The count has gone on for three weeks, Liberal and Teal scrutineers observed the process, votes were counted multiple times. Our margin hasn’t dropped below a hundred once in a majority, and our 260 margin nearly doubles an imaginary 140 auto recount threshold. So that’s very interesting, isn’t it? So at three weeks, I mean that is a long time for this seat.
Adam Creighton:
It is. Well, that’s a whole other issue. We should have known the results by now, many days ago, I would say.
Rita Panahi:
Now we’ve gotten more details of the liberal party’s disastrous election campaign. A senior liberal source has told the Australian newspaper that internal polling by Freshwater Strategy was extremely inaccurate and gave the campaign flawed information throughout the election. The polling was a huge problem. It was way out. If we had known the truth, we would have changed course overnight. Well, Adam, if they just watched Sky News, we’ve been telling them all year and certainly throughout the election campaign that they were absolutely stuffing it up. They were going to lose. They were going to lose comfortably because this was just the most lacklustre nothing campaign.
Adam Creighton:
Yes.
Rita Panahi:
And opposition has mounted well in my lifetime.
Adam Creighton:
Yeah, look, I mean, I probably have a slightly different view. I mean, of course in hindsight, we’re all geniuses now, but-
Rita Panahi:
Oh no, it wasn’t hindsight, I said it throughout the election campaign. Throughout.
Adam Creighton:
Okay, okay. No, no, no. [inaudible 00:06:33], I thought it would be closer than it was. And I guess I was misled by the polling and everyone’s beating up on Freshwater, and I get that. It’s kind of funny. But it was all the polling was kind of wrong. I mean, it wasn’t just them. It was all hugely out. I mean, it was kind of the pollster’s 2016 moment, if you like, in relation to the US when they all got it completely wrong, except the error didn’t go to the right, it went to the left. So look, let’s hope they improve their polling for next time, especially for the liberal party, so that they’re not kind of operating blind.
Rita Panahi:
Yes, yes. [inaudible 00:07:01] was an interesting piece by Greg Sheridan over the weekend in the Australian about the country being divided, misgoverned and in retreat he wrote, Australia is a nation in decline across every indicator you can imagine. Economy, living standards, social cohesion, crime, health, military capability, the creativity and virtuosity of the arts. We’re in a serious decline. Is it really that grim, Adam?
Adam Creighton:
Look, I think it is. I share his pessimism and in fact, I wrote a similar column a few weeks earlier in the Australian. Look, I think on all those dimensions. But let’s just look at the economic. We did have the biggest fall of living standards in the OECD over the last three years, which is extremely embarrassing. And it’s hard to see how that’s going to stop. We’ve got the resource boom ending soon, [inaudible 00:07:48] the Chinese economy is going to start to shrink, and yet no one is talking about this. I mean, how are we going to pay our way in the world? We’ve been relying on iron ore to do it for the last 10 or so years. That’s going to slowly dry up. And yet we keep regulating our economy, increasing taxes. There’s no debate really about our taxation system or our economic future. And we’ve imported, I think, 1.3 million migrants in three years. The fastest population growth in the developed world by far.
Rita Panahi:
With not sufficient housing for them.
Adam Creighton:
That’s right. Absolutely not.
Rita Panahi:
[inaudible 00:08:18] just beginners.
Adam Creighton:
And then there’s the social cohesion issue. I mean, that’s starting to fray, surely. I mean, we talked about some issues earlier on the programme that possibly relate to that. So look, I just think it’s almost like the political class is actually trying to destroy Australia on purpose. That’s how pessimistic I am about it.
Rita Panahi:
Before you go, I know you love the city of Melbourne. You’re a new resident.
Adam Creighton:
A new resident.
Rita Panahi:
A new resident, but this news isn’t going to make you happy. More than $800,000 of the COVID Relief Fund was redirected by the city of Melbourne. This money was supposed to help revitalise the CBD, but instead it’s gone to creating 40 kilometre zones in East Melbourne and North Melbourne. Adam…
Adam Creighton:
It’s funny. I mean, I saw this story and I was shocked, it was one of my pet peeves about the city since moving here from Sydney is the slow speed limits, especially going from the airport to the CBD where you’ve got this beautiful highway and you can’t go any faster than 80 Ks an hour.
Rita Panahi:
Bizarre.
Adam Creighton:
I mean, it doesn’t make any sense. And so this, I mean, a 40 K speed limit. I mean, you’d almost be better off walking, which is the idea. That’s what they want to do to destroy cars.
Rita Panahi:
They want us on bikes.
Adam Creighton:
That’s right. They want everyone on bikes. So I think that’s just so embarrassing. I mean, if you want to be a world city, you can’t have 40 K speed limits. It’s just a joke.
Rita Panahi:
Adam Creighton, thank you so much for your time.
This transcript of Adam Creighton speaking on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia from 26 May 2025 has been edited for clarity.
