Peta Credlin:
All right, joining me now. For my panel, Chris Uhlmann is not with us tonight. He will be with us on Wednesday night. Of course, you do not want to miss the Howard documentary, which we’ll screen here on Sky News, but let’s bring in my panel.
National Affairs Editor at Daily Telegraph, Sky News host, of course, James Morrow. The Deputy Executive Director at the IPA, Daniel Wild. Gentlemen, let’s start with this fuel issue, Dan. Every time I talk fuel, I remember the late great Jim Molan who put this on the agenda, I think about 2017, 2018, so a long time ago.
Yes, we’re focused on the potential increases to people at the bowser in Australia, right? We know cost of living is biting. But what concerns me is our food, our fibre, our resources supply chain, particularly our farmers. We’ve got issues not just with the diesel they need for the paddocks, but real issues with fertiliser. About a quarter of the globe’s nitrogen comes out of the Strait of Hormuz. As I say, we’ve been warning about this. It’s called a right wing conspiracy if you listen to labour, but we have been warning about this for years.
Daniel Wild:
Well, it’s actually right, Peta. And the other thing that Jim Molan used to say is that national security is a whole of economy, whole of society issue, that it can’t just be quarantined to one particular department or portfolio and how prescient he was.
Look, the other point I’d make is that we’ve been let down by a political class that just doesn’t get it. I mean, how is it the case that we only have two oil refineries left, as you pointed out? We’re outsourcing our manufacturing sector. We can’t really make anything of value anymore. Energy costs are too high for us to be able to do that. We’re shipping coal and gas and uranium overseas, but we don’t use it ourselves. So we have some of the highest electricity prices in the developed world. This is all self-inflicted. There’s always going to be global events.
The question for policymakers is, what can they do to make our nation more resilient? And they have failed comprehensively at that. I found the comments of Tim Ayres very funny that you played before, because I reckon that’s the Liberal Party’s first campaign ad. If you’re one of the 98% of Australians that doesn’t own an electric vehicle, Labour doesn’t give us stuff about you. They say, “Oh, drive past the bowser if you’ve got an EV.” Well, that’s all well and good, it’s $2.30 when I was driving here.
So the idea that Labour has any idea what’s happening on the ground is now complete and total farce. So look, unfortunately, I just don’t think the government gets it. And as I say, we’ve been let down by political leaders who have outsourced our sovereign capabilities to hostile foreign nations.
Peta Credlin:
James Morrow, in the Howard era, I worked in the immigration portfolio. This is the time, of course, when Philip Ruddock was running the show as minister. And if you wanted to change your visa class, if you had been knocked back to stay in Australia, you had to leave Australia in order to put in another application. That’s long gone. You now can obviously work your way through the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. You can be on the taxpayer coin to appeal all the way to the high court. The coalition wants to get rid of this loophole, wants to go back to the old Howard government era. This is a great move. They also want to overhaul the countries that you can come from, and they’re going to want to see extra checks. If you come from a country that would consider extremist or radicalised, absolutely about time.
James Morrow:
Oh, Peta, look, I agree with you. And I was cheering when I read these headlines this morning. It seems like they are really serious about getting serious about some of these issues here. I mean, you mentioned the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, now the ART. It is just scandalous the way that has been abused over the years, the way bridging visas have been abused. There are now something like 100,000 people in this country who have stayed through their entire series of appeals and appeals and appeals and appeals got knocked back every step of the way and they’re still in the country. We can’t get rid of them.
This is a huge problem that we have right now. People say we don’t have an illegal immigration problem. Well, kind of we do. And this would be making people go to their home country to reapply would be a huge, I think, step forward on this. But what has to happen here is there has to be a recognition that there’s not a positive right to come to Australia. It’s a privilege. It’s not a right. We decide. Go back to the Howard construction. We decide who comes to this country. It’s not about you’re putting in a visa application. Well, we presume you have the right to come as long as you meet the checks or whatever.
Peta Credlin:
Let’s go to this information we saw today, Dan. Federal government’s rolling out this new 84-page teaching resource. Another thing to load into the curriculum about Australia’s war history. It’s got a whole lot of stuff in here about colonial genocide, the Australian wars. Now, yes, there was history between white Australia and Aboriginal Australia, but I tell you what, I’ve had a good flick through this document already. There is scarcely a mention of our greatest wartime general, the greatest of John Monash, perhaps because he’s Jewish. I would hate that’s not to be the case, but I tell you what, he’s scarcely mentioned. There’s a whole lot of stuff in there about Aboriginal wars, but I don’t think enough focus on the Second World War and the First World War, as I said, with Monash. And I’m worried about the direction here of this military history revisionism.
Daniel Wild:
Well, I share your concerns and it comes on the back of Jason Clare, Education Minister a couple of weeks ago, saying that he wanted more pride, more Australian pride to be in the national curriculum. Well, I agree with that, but this seems to be completely and totally at odds with that. And look, we all want to have a proper balanced curriculum, the good, the bad, and the ugly of Australian history. But I’ve got to say, the overwhelming majority of Australia’s history is good. It is a positive. It is a positive that were settled by the British.
The democracy, the rule of law, equal rights for all of us. I mean, people just underestimate how big of a deal that was. You can go all the way back to the cable case of 1788. You can go to the secret ballot. You can go to the 1967 referendum where 90% of Australians said that we’re all equal. I mean, time and time again, Australia has shown the world that not only do we sort of pioneer these ideas in Australia, but we form ideas that are the cornerstone of democracy around the world.
And my concern is, is exactly yours that we have this sort of inward looking negative view that is pushed onto children. They come out of school, they come out of university thinking that we’re a terrible country. That’s why they’re not signing up for the armed forces, by the way. We’re just talking about how national defence is of whole of society issue. Well, you’re not going to sign up to defend a country that you believe is a bad country. So look, I already think the government needs to get its act together on this and make sure children understand what a great nation we really are.
Peta Credlin:
Yeah. Mark my words, Dan, just like they came after Australia Day, this is about diminishing the story of the ANZAC. It’s about diminishing the role of the ADF in the Second World War and beyond. And it’s about trying to dismantle the love a lot of Australians have and the enormous respect they have for the 25th of April. That’s the next play.
Let’s just look at the by-election, the Farrer by-election announced, of course, when I was away for the 9th of May, three days before the federal budget. Let me tell you what’s going on here, James. The government knows they’re in trouble with the budget, right? They’re not going to be able to contain any of their spending. They are responsible then for the concomitant spikes of inflation and the hit on mortgage holders. So they’re going to do two things here. They’re going to try and make their budget week all about a flogging that they hope the Liberals or the Nationals will get that Saturday in Farrer. And they’ll also tie everything bad in the budget to not our fault, it’s all to do with Iran.
James Morrow:
Absolutely right. And the other thing too, Peta, is that they’re going to have this situation where the one nation candidates actually do quite well. I suspect they’ve got a serious player in that, somebody who’s done agribusiness.
Peta Credlin:
David Farley, he is terrific.
James Morrow:
David Farley. He is a serious person. He’s a serious candidate. He’s got real links to the community. He’s known. He’s a serious player. So whatever you say about One Nation candidate selection, sometimes I think they’ve got it right here.
The other thing too, two other things too, you got the Liberal and Nationals both running a candidate, so that’s going to split the vote. And then you’ve got Albury, which is in that seat, which is got some university stuff and it’s got a little bit of a Teal component in that. So that’s going to wind up driving I think some-
Peta Credlin:
Public servants too.
James Morrow:
Public servants.
Peta Credlin:
Public servants in Albury.
James Morrow:
I think the tax office has a big operation on there. I always get mail from them. Hi guys. Hope you’re watching. So that’s going to drive people towards the independent. It’s really an independent, One Nation contest. I think the splitting of the vote is such a tactically unwise thing to do for the coalition to be doing.
Peta Credlin:
We need to expose in the media the Teal candidate because she’s putting herself up as a community independent. This is Milthorpe. She ran quite well against Sussan Ley last time round. I understand. I mean, Sussan Ley is a Liberal, but the Liberal branches down there in disarray, but they’re basically with it on the vine. She had to be saved, Sussan Ley, by moderates out of Sydney at a pre-election last time.
So there’s not a lot of party infrastructure there for the Libs and Farrer. I think the Nats are a little bit better off, but I think One Nation’s the one where there is the community enthusiasm, but you’re right to say the bulk of the votes are in Albury and it has got a very big sort of left wing union public sector sort of tone to it. I hope to get up there and have a look and give you my views from the ground, but I’ll leave you there. Thank you, gentlemen.
This transcript of Daniel Wild talking on Credlin – Sky News Australia 9 March 2026 been edited for clarity.
