Steve Price:
Let’s get stuck into it with my first panel tonight, Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Daniel Wild, and Sky contributor Karalee Katsambanis.
I want to start by playing for you a line from the Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. We saw him there. He was addressing Federal Parliament today. Have a look at this.
Mark Carney:
When the rules no longer protect you, you must defend yourself. A country that can’t feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself, has few options.
Steve Price:
Now, Daniel, I wonder if the Defence Minister, Richard Myles, the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, was sitting there squirming in their seats, given Australia can’t fuel itself, can’t defend ourselves, or do they just remain in ignorant denial?
Daniel Wild:
Well, we’re also losing our ability to feed ourselves, because we’ve got wind turbines and solar panels going up on primary agricultural land, and we could become a food importer rather than an exporter in years to come.
And look, you look at Canada, and it’s been extraordinary on two things. They’ve dramatically cut immigration into their country. As a matter of fact, for a three-month period last year, their total population went backwards by 76,000 people. Not just immigrants went down, the total population went down. The sky didn’t fall in. The economy didn’t collapse. Things kept going on perfectly fine.
They’ve also done a U-turn on the obsession with net zero. Now, this is a big deal, because Mark Carney was called carbon tax Carney for a reason. He was the chief advocate of those policies, but they’ve dumped the carbon tax. They’ve removed the damaging mandate to have 20% of vehicles to be electric. So, they’re actually moving away from-
Steve Price:
Sensible politics.
Daniel Wild:
Absolutely sensible. And this is from a very left wing leader and a left wing government. So, imagine we had a bit of a dose of that here in Australia, but as you suggest, I’m not holding my breath.
Steve Price:
Karalee, I hope we didn’t see Chris Bowen talking to Prime Minister Carney. Or if he did, did he ask Carney how Canada’s 17, yes, I said 17 nuclear reactors were going, or how Canada’s investment in small modular nuclear reactors? Remember them from the election campaign, where Albanese and Charmers and everyone else in Labour laughed at the idea that we would go nuclear. I mean, what fools these people up?
Karalee Katsambanis:
Well, look, they definitely are. And the thing is, Carney, as you say, very left wing, being sensible, but he’s actually pivoted Canada away from its closest neighbour, America.
I don’t like when he says Australia and Canada should be rewriting and doing a new international world order. What they need to realise is, who’s right in the international world order as well?
Wasn’t that long ago. We’re not all that old. Cold War. Who does the international world order? Nigeria, Iran, North Korea, all that. They need to wake up and realise that Iran is the axis of evil, and it is now a fight for Western civilization.
It’s been the most prosperous time in modern history, and that is about to be… It’s being destroyed. It’s all just words, saying we need a new international order. No, we don’t. You actually need to look at what Trump is doing, and realise that he’s actually on the right path.
Steve Price:
Daniel, ever got any hope that Albanese will talk to Carney, and say, “Mate, we’ve said no to nuclear. You’ve got a lot of them. How are your energy prices going? How’s your reliable energy?” I mean, it would make sense, wouldn’t it? I mean, you have to be a big person to admit you’re wrong.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, and that’s why it’s not going to happen here, sadly. But the interesting thing about Australia, is historically we haven’t needed nuclear because we had a tonne of coal. That’s why we never went ahead with nuclear.
Now, the number one problem is that successive governments on both side of politics, it’s got to be said, have undermined the case for coal fire power. And the case for nuclear sadly has gone backwards after the coalition bungled the last election. So, I don’t think there’s going to be a U-turn on that here.
But you make a very good point. Surely Carney’s taking him to aside and saying, “Mate, come on, get some base load power in your system.”
Steve Price:
Otherwise, you’re going to decarbonize, not decarbonize your economy, you’re going to destroy it. I mean, that’s going to be the problem.
Let’s stick with the Canadian PM. He was questioned at that joint press conference today about he’s now calling for a deescalation in the Iranian war. Here he is.
Journalist:
You’re calling for deescalation of hostilities in Iran. Your comments at the Institute last night acknowledged there was some predictability that this conflict would be widening besides the initial strike.
Mark Carney:
Yeah.
Journalist:
So, if that was your logic from the outset, why in your first statement did you not call for any kind of deescalation?
Mark Carney:
Because it was the very… Look, it was the very beginning.
Journalist:
How can you have it both ways? How can you say you initially… I understand your first statement you said was made in ours, but you also said there was some predictability, you knew this was going to widen. So, how can you have it both ways? And in hindsight, should you have called for deescalation in that first statement?
Mark Carney:
No. Now that the conflict has moved on, now that the conflict is involving a much wider group, but even if … I don’t want to say even if, but moving into the Gulf, moving into civilian infrastructure, we’re seeing a few things. One, it is not solely the decision of the principle belligerence to move to the deescalation.
Steve Price:
Well, Karalee, I’m not sure I understood the question or the answer.
Karalee Katsambanis:
No. No, I didn’t either. And the thing is, as Marco Rubio, as Trump has said, someone had to do it. They’ve got to go in, finish the job and get the job done.
I mean, as I said, we always see these protesters protesting about everything, the Iranian people, the Ayatollah, murdering thousands of those people. As Trump said in that great eight minute speech on Truth Social on Saturday night, this is the opportunity in generations to actually control the narrative, and actually bring democracy, and rid this. I mean, this is a pre-historic regime. It’s disgraceful.
Steve Price:
Dan, that was a typical response from a left-leaning Labour politician, wasn’t it?
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, it was. I actually liked the question from the journalist. At least she was sort of giving it to them. But you never see that from an ABC journalist. At least she was sort of putting it to him a bit.
But I think when you talk about deescalation, my fear in the Iran situation, I agree with what you’ve said, Karalee, but it’s always the question of what comes next. So, getting rid of the Ayatollah, good thing. But sometimes what comes next is unpredictable and more volatile than what was there to begin with. And that doesn’t justify the original regime, but this is what sort of happened in Iraq. You get rid of Saddam, you go in there, try to build democracy, doesn’t work, and it all ends up being a bit of a mess.
Steve Price:
But if you believe Trump, there was going to be a nuclear weapon. I mean, within two weeks, I find that a little difficult to believe, but let’s take him at his word. I mean, whether it’s going to be messy after you take the head off of the regime or not, if you’ve managed to go in and destroy any ambitions they have for nuclear weapons, that’s surely a good thing.
Daniel Wild:
I agree. Taking out the nukes was absolutely non-negotiable. A nuclear Iran was completely and totally unacceptable. But in terms of what comes next, it’s entirely unclear as to what that might be.
So, I understand the calls for deescalation, but it’s always a question of, well, what does that actually mean in practise?
Steve Price:
Let’s come back to domestic politics. So, watching question time today, because I had no better things to do, obviously. Education Minister, Jason Clare got up, boasting about the rise in the number of children that are finishing high school. Here he is.
Jason Clare:
Information out this morning shows that the number of kids finishing high school is going back up. The number of boys finishing high school is going up. The number of girls finishing high school is going up.
I think everyone here will remember what happened last time the Liberals were in power, how they ripped the guts out of our public schools, how they ripped $30 billion out of our public schools, and that’s when all of this started. We’re still dealing with the consequences of it.
Steve Price:
I mean, seriously, we welcome the numbers obviously, although there is some debate around young boys and school attendance, I think. But what really got me is Clare is blaming lower numbers on the Morrison government that hasn’t been there since 2022, for a start.
And Karalee, for you, he ignores the fact that for two years during that Morrison government, COVID, schools were shut and schools were actually being run by the state governments that were, back then, Labour in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and West Australia.
Karalee Katsambanis:
He also forgets that our education system, our results in the international PESA testing are going backwards. He forgets that school should not be a babysitting service for a lot of young men that are feeling disenfranchised. Hamlet, Macbeth, they’re not for everyone.
What he’s not talking about is technical schools that could be brought back. And what he’s also not talking about, and I can say this as a woman, you’re both men, he’s a man as well, when you start demonising young Australian boys and men, only a few years ago in Warrnambool in Victoria, 12-year-olds were made to stand up and apologise to the female students on behalf of their gender. When you’re doing all that type of stuff, and doing these leftist policies and demonising men and young boys, what hope is there for these young men?
Steve Price:
I think, Daniel, you’ve got to call out all the time when the now current government goes back on economic figures, education figures, whatever it is, and they just forget that COVID ever existed. When they talk about debt and spending, they never mention, “Oh, well, that was during COVID.”
Daniel Wild:
Yeah. Well, you’re absolutely bang on. And this is a lot of cherry picking that’s going on. I think Karalee makes a number of important points. And I would just add one observation, which is, well, they’re graduating in higher numbers, great, but what are they learning? Are they coming out smarter than what they went in? They’re learning a lot of woke indoctrination.
Now, Jason Clare says he wants to get patriotism back into schools. Great. I’m not holding my breath to actually see it happen. I mean, this is a guy who advocated for racial division in The Voice to Parliament. Now, he’s pretending he’s draping himself in the Australian flag. Is he fair dinkum?
Karalee Katsambanis:
Good point.
Steve Price:
No, probably not. Karalee, Dan, appreciate your time. Thank you very much for joining us.
This transcript of Daniel WIld on Credlin Sky News Australia from 5 March 2026 has been edited for clarity.
