Rita Panahi:
Joining me now for more on this is Institute of Public Affairs Research Fellow Colleen Harkin and Sky News contributor Prue MacSween. Colleen, I’ll start with you. The PM’s negative 18% approval rating would be a cause of enormous concern for Labour.
Colleen Harkin:
Most definitely. It is a sign between both of those parties about the substantial loss of confidence of both of those traditionally major parties and the role of how really genuinely concerned they are about the role of the standing of One Nation and voter dissatisfaction. And I think what’s happening here is that both of those traditionally major parties criticising One Nation is actually only making that vote stronger. So they sort of need to be careful of what they wish for in that scenario because demonising Australians for having an open and transparent conversation about how they might intend to vote is not going to help either of those traditional parties.
Rita Panahi:
Prue, the libs seem to be slow learners at the moment. They keep attacking One Nation. Earlier today on this station, the liberal shadow ministers, again, laying the boots into One Nation instead of focusing on Labour. And as Colleen said, it’s actually not doing them any good. The media attacks, the political attacks against One Nation don’t seem to be affecting their figures too much in the polls.
Prue MacSween:
Exactly. It’s ridiculous. The backroom boys are obviously saying to Taylor, stick the boot into her. We can always do a deal. Remember, of course, Albanese always said he’d never do a deal with the Greens. And of course he does do deals with the Greens. And this will happen if the libs need to rely on One Nation to get to government. But as you said, Rita, the more they stick it into One Nation and Pauline Hanson, the more that they’re going to pay for it because they can verbal her and gaslight her, call it populist politics. Well, it’s actually popular politics. It’s reflecting the concerns and mood of the community.
Rita Panahi:
This claim of populism I’ve always found profoundly amusing because you’re in the game of politics. It’s a democratic process and the person with the most votes wins. So populism, I would’ve thought is just another way of democracy doing its thing. Now let’s talk about Victoria. Almost two-thirds of voters in Victoria no longer believe the Jacinta Allan government can remedy the state’s housing crisis. A new report by Amplify Australia revealed 65% of Victorians think the government won’t reach its housing targets in the next four years. Amplify CEO Martin Codina said the Victorian government is facing a crisis of confidence on housing. Proof we’ve got a whopping 80% of the state worried about the impacts of immigration on housing availability, a topic you would never hear the premier or anyone in Labour addressing in any serious manner.
Prue MacSween:
I’m surprised it’s only 80%. We know the basket case that Victoria is with the big build, the fact that there’s been so much waste of money and the lies and the spin, the deals with the unions, et cetera. And it’s really concerning. So we all know that immigration is causing demand for housing. We are not meeting housing targets. We cannot meet those housing targets. So of course the population is going to wake up to the fact that this is spin and lies and promises that the government will not keep and they’re all going to suffer whether they’re renters or home buyers.
Rita Panahi:
Colleen, I think Victoria’s given the rest of the country a little preview of what happens in the housing sector when you embrace these leftist anti-investment positions. This state has really gone down that road strongly, the land tax in this state, plus all the tenancy laws that were changed, which make it really quite unattractive to be a landlord in this state.
Colleen Harkin:
Well, for a long time, Victoria has treated housing as something to regulate, not something to build. And the consequences of that have been extraordinary burden on investment, on the opportunity to get into housing. What we need is we need to make housing faster to be able to build, to remove the regulation. We want to get government out of the way. Victoria has some of the highest taxing scenario in the country, which just makes investments difficult and unpalatable. So we have sort of a perfect storm of all of the things that make housing an achievable target. And with all of the layer upon layer upon problems, including what Prue just referred to of the immigration components, increasing population, it is no wonder that it is one of the major issues that Victorians are most concerned about.
Rita Panahi:
Now child psychiatrist Jillian Spencer has been formally cleared of wrongdoing by Queensland Children’s Hospital after it suspended her three years ago for speaking out about so-called gender-affirming care for children. Dr. Spencer was stood down from clinical duties in April 2023 after assessing a patient who was under the care of the hospital’s gender clinic and who had been taking puberty blockers. A complaint of transphobia was made after that consultation and the hospital then decided she was a risk to the safety of transgender and gender diverse children. In a statement, the hospital and the health service said its disputes with child and adolescent psychiatrists have now been settled and all matters had been resolved by mutual agreement. We spoke to Jillian on Outsiders yesterday morning. Colleen, what this woman has endured is utterly shameful. It was institutional bullying in my opinion from start to finish.
Colleen Harkin:
I agree with you, Rita. [inaudible 00:06:32] here is to remember that it has gone on for three years.
Rita Panahi:
Exactly.
Colleen Harkin:
Yeah, that her ability to actually speak out with professional integrity and raise a question, that’s all that was actually done was just to raise a question about, is this pathway best care? Are there other considerations that we’re not exposing and talking about? And so she’s been shut down and everything about her professional standing has been questioned. And the fact that it’s gone on for so long is an absolute disgrace. We need to rely on our professionals to be able to transparently talk about scientific evidence and to be able to question what is going on in practise and whether we’re doing the best thing by those who are in need of care.
Rita Panahi:
Prue, Jillian’s plight here I think just illustrates perfectly why so many professionals are reluctant to say anything. Because you see what’s happened to her, three years of her life, three years of her professional life, her reputation all being dragged through the mud for having the temerity to speak the truth, for having the courage to take a stand on such an important issue.
Prue MacSween:
Yeah. This is state-sanctioned child abuse as far as I’m concerned. And I just feel it’s a shocking indictment on everyone concerned. But this is the problem with this society that we have groups of people, many of them in power who can suddenly keep whistleblowers silent. It’s a group think, it’s bullying. And thank goodness we’ve got warriors like Jillian who is brave enough to stand up and say enough. But not enough of that is happening as you say. And I think good honour. I admire her greatly. We need warriors like her and how appalling and what is it going to cost? What does this cost the health system to fight this poor woman?
Rita Panahi:
And hopefully you have more professionals find their courage. And when one of their own is persecuted like this, they take a stand. They write into their professional bodies, they speak to the media and they say this isn’t healthy. This is a climate of fear that’s been created where people aren’t going to be speaking out. And we’re talking about professionals here who know better than most what’s happening in that area. Now before you go, we’ve got to talk about the World Cup. A lot of Australians would’ve been up early to watch Spain defeat Argentina to be crowned World Cup champions. Donald Trump of course was front and centre during the victory ceremony handing medals to the Spanish players and watching here hand the trophy to the winning side. He was reluctant to get out of shot.
Video:
Speaker 4: President Donald Trump who turned 80 over the first weekend of this World Cup and it will be brought to them. The president of the game, the president of the USA. In 2026, the champions of the world are Spain.
Rita Panahi:
And you’ll see some of the Spanish players doing the Trump dance, the iconic YMCA fist pump dance. Prue, he was reluctant to get out of a shot there as the play is celebrated. He loves a photo bomb. This is extraordinary what he has got in his second term. If he’d been allowed to win that 2020 election, depending on who you believe, he perhaps did win it, but those efforts were frustrated, he would’ve missed the World Cup. He would’ve missed the 250-year anniversary of the country and he would’ve missed the Olympics. All of those things will be happening in his second term or he’s already had two of them. The Olympics are yet to come.
Prue MacSween:
The Trumpster loves to be amongst the winners and to be associating with anything that’s positive and good on him. I was more anxious. I thought, how the hell is this sniper going to take him out? I was really anxious more about that. So they must have had great security, but he didn’t want to, given exactly what he’d said about Spain too, he’d really been rude to them. So he wasn’t prepared to eat humble pie. He just dusted it off as the Trumpster does.
Rita Panahi:
Well, yeah, he was rooting for Argentina, Colleen, of course, Javier Milei, his great friend, the leader there. And of course Spain these days is a bit of a leftist government. It’s been a bit of a thorn in America’s side in geopolitics discussions, but it was all happy celebrations there. There was no ill will.
Colleen Harkin:
Well, I’m one of these people who are saying, “Is the World Cup over? Is the soccer finished?” I’m not a very good sporting person. But it is nice to see this kind of a happy rivalry that’s just… It’s not overly politicised. It’s just a good fun thing that people get together and enjoy celebrating each other’s customs. I love the Spanish people starting to dance in the background. I thought that was fabulous. I have a question about Jeff Bezos’s white shoes with his suit. That was interesting to see.
Rita Panahi:
Oh, yes.
Colleen Harkin:
Yeah, but winners are grinners. It’s all great for celebrating culture.
Rita Panahi:
Well, the halftime show, the pre-match was also world-class. I’ll be talking to Kinsey Schofield about that later in the hour. Ladies, thank you so much for your time today. Colleen Harkin, Prue MacSween.
This transcript of Colleen Harkin speaking on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 20 July 2026 has been edited for clarity.
