Rita Panahi:
He is Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Daniel Wild. Dan, what happened to Henry Nowak is among, I’ve got to say, the most horrific things I’ve ever seen, and it didn’t happen in isolation. We’ve seen the police force in the UK be captured by leftist ideology. We saw it through the grooming gang scandal. We’ve seen it with hundreds of people being terrorised over mean tweets and memes, and now this.
Daniel Wild:
Well, the UK is clearly now a failed state. People just don’t have any confidence that police or many other institutions are going to treat them fairly. That’s been obvious for a long time now. I mean, it’s taken this absolute tragedy to sort of sheet home that reality to a lot of people. I mean, Keir Starmer, his address was completely and totally pathetic. I mean, he is complicit in the downfall of his own country. There is not just a two-tiered policing system, but it’s something that’s much more insidious and much worse than that, which as you rightly identify, it’s the idea of people being treated as equals before the law has been replaced with the idea of woke reverse racism, which is now literally resulting in innocent people dying.
Rita Panahi:
Do you see parallels with what’s happening here with our police force? Are they also being captured by leftist ideology?
Daniel Wild:
Sadly, they have and certainly at a leadership level. I mean, I always have a lot of sympathy for those who are on the front line. I think most people join the police to do the right thing because they want to help protect the community. But definitely the leadership of Victoria Police has allowed itself to become an arm of the political operation of the government. I mean, that was obvious in COVID, the double standard that was there.
They also took a knee to Black Lives Matter. They allowed that protest to go ahead. Remember during COVID, the people that were protesting the lockdowns were not only not allowed to do it, but the police shot them with rubber bullets. And then they wonder why people don’t sign up to the police force and they wonder why people don’t care what they have to say. And the result of this, by the way, is lawlessness and that’s not a good thing. We want to have a society where people trust law enforcement, but now they don’t.
Rita Panahi:
Well, I saw a real shift in attitudes to police during COVID from people who typically would have great respect for law and order and there was a shift. And you can see with those clips that we just played, there is real anger, not just at the government, not just at police command, but even on those working at the coalface there, they are now seen as complicit in what’s happening. And I guess when you’ve got a culture that’s that rotten over decades, it does seep down to those working on the coalface.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, it could do. And what also happens is the good ones leave as well.
Rita Panahi:
That’s true.
Daniel Wild:
So the ones that sort of go, “Look, I didn’t sign up for this.” They’re the first ones to leave and then you’re left with the ones that sort of go on with it. So look, unfortunately, this is going to take … I mean, I don’t know if it can be fixed and if it can, it’s going to take more than a generation to do so.
Rita Panahi:
Now, Brendan O’Neill wrote a brilliant piece for Spiked on this issue. He wrote, “A boy’s final moments were filled with the defamatory taunts of his murderer who falsely accused Henry of racism and assault and the sterile contempt of the state. He preyed upon Henry …” This is the killer. “And then he preyed upon the ruling order’s mission zeal regarding racism.” He understood, as we all do, that the word racism has an almost hypnotic effect on the 21st century ruling class.
And O’Neill, I think, made the very excellent point too, Dan, that the lefties who are now urging people not to politicise this issue were very happy to politicise George Floyd’s murder. He wrote, “The same posh leftist who responded to the death of a man 4,000 miles from Britain by taking a knee, rioting, tearing down statutes and barking silence is violence at anyone who refused to partake in their orgy of performative virtue are now saying, don’t politicise the death of Henry Nowak.”
Daniel Wild:
Yeah. And I think as we’ve talked about before, what happens is the left tend to co-opt institutions and use them for their own ends and then they complain when others do the same thing. And so the problem that we’re going to have is when those on the right get in power, they’re probably going to use these institutions against the left.
And that’s not a good place to be in as a society, because we want these institutions to be neutral, but the left haven’t understood for a long time they’re playing with fire and really the population of Western countries have had enough of it. And so what we’re seeing is really the destruction of centuries old institutions because of exactly the reason that Brendan has outlined. So sadly, we’re not going to return to the status quo that we used to have.
Rita Panahi:
Now, let’s get to some local news. Defence Minister Richard Marles has warned xenophobia is making Australia less safe in a veiled attack against One Nation. Days after One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson said she was against mass migration and promised to cap visas at 130,000 a year. Marles delivered a speech at the Defending Australia Summit where he said this.
Richard Marles:
I mean, it is utterly unacceptable that for a country where fully one-fourth of our citizens are born overseas, that we have leading politicians who are seeking to draw a distinction between migrants and Australians.
Rita Panahi:
Dan, dear me. It’s like he’s using UK Labor’s playbook there. We are seeing so many parallels between what’s happening here with One Nation and reform there. We just seem to be about a decade behind perhaps.
Daniel Wild:
Well, firstly, he’s wrong. It’s not one-fourth, it’s actually one-third that were born overseas. So he doesn’t even know that. It’s kind of like his defence numbers, he’s got no idea what he’s talking about.
Look, I mean, this is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. I mean, the idea that xenophobia, he has no evidence of that whatsoever. I mean, Richard Marles, if you think Australia’s a racist country, come out and say it, and gives some evidence rather than hiding behind this.
The biggest threat to our country is that you’re an incompetent defence minister that has no idea what he’s doing. We’re completely underprepared for the situation that we’re in. You’re not spending enough money on defence, you’re shutting down the bases that we need. We’re not going to get the submarines that we need. And then you’re pointing the finger at Australians, calling them racist and saying that they’re the problem. And then you scratch your head wondering why people are voting for One Nation. I mean, these guys are total jokers.
Rita Panahi:
Dan, we’ve seen this before in this country where authorities scaremongering about the right wing, talking about right wing threats being a bigger issue than Islamist threats. What exactly does the minister mean when he says xenophobia? And to use safety as an argument saying that xenophobia reduces our safety, it’s very cynical.
Daniel Wild:
Well, I think it’s effective among the political class, but I don’t think the public like it or buy it at all. I mean, does anyone seriously think that xenophobia is the biggest risk that we face? And look, I think the other point here-
Rita Panahi:
And I would love to hear his definition of xenophobia, because I think it would be a … Well, I just think it would be a very extensive one. It would be things like if you say, “I’m against mass migration,” then you’re xenophobic and that would make the majority of Australians xenophobic.
Daniel Wild:
The other thing, the reason they use this language is they like to use the language of national security as a tool to engage in censorship and political censorship and misinformation and things like that. So don’t be surprised if you start seeing things from the government, which is basically saying, “Well, we need to police the debate about immigration from a national security perspective.”
Rita Panahi:
Absolutely. Now, one of the nation’s top economists has predicted the RBA will raise rates twice more this year following the Fair Work Commission’s ruling on the minimum wage from July 1. Minimum award wages will increase by 4.75% or from $24.95 to $26.44. AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver said, “With inflation raging at 4.2%, the RBA would be worried this will add to cost pressures in the economy, which businesses then pass on as high prices.”
Dan, this is going to tip some people over the edge. We’ve got so many suffering from economic hardship who are just barely holding on. And if their mortgage payments rise two more times this year alone, some will have to sell their homes.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah. I think the issue here is that the wage rise is barely even going to keep pace with inflation anyway. So basically, the Fair Work Commission ruling is to keep people steady in terms of where they are. And like you’ve talked about when the solution is to increase interest rates, which then punishes mortgage holders unfairly. It also punishes low income earners, because they feel the effects of inflation the most as well. And so ultimately, the fault here is with the government. And when we’ve seen the figures out today on GDP where, once again, it’s now 10 out of 15 quarters under this government, GDP has gone backwards. This is the worst set of economic numbers we’ve ever seen since digitised records began, and it’s working Australians who are copping it in the neck.
Rita Panahi:
Dan Wild, thank you so much for your time tonight.
Daniel Wild:
Thank you.
This transcript with Daniel Wild talking on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 3 June 2026 has been edited for clarity.
