In this interview Daniel Wild appeared on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on Net Zero.
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 Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, Dan Wild. Dan, this is a PR coup for the Chinese Communist Party. There’s no other way to describe this. Why a labour heavyweight, a labour luminary like Dan Andrews would allow himself to be used for this propaganda effort is really beyond me.
Daniel Wild:
Well, exactly. I mean, if I was in a position of authority, I’d be cancelling his visa so he can’t get back into the country, which he did to a lot of people during Covid.
Rita Panahi:
Absolutely. Oh, that is true.
Daniel Wild:
So he can have a taste of his own medicine. But this really is extraordinary. I can’t remember anything like this happening before. It raises a whole series of questions, for example, around the Belt and Road programme which he ran, which is basically a vehicle for the Chinese Communist Party to exert its economic control in Victoria and around Australia. And of course, the lockdowns that you mentioned very much was taking his cues from what China did to their population.
So I’ve even seen today that former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was a step or a bridge too far as well. So I think there are so many questions about this. I think it’s also being done for craven domestic political reasons-
Rita Panahi:
Yes. Absolutely.
Daniel Wild:
In relation to Chinese voters here in Victoria who can have a significant influence over a number of seats as well. So many questions about this trip.
Rita Panahi:
Well, absolutely. I think he wouldn’t have gone there if the Prime Minister expressed a strong desire for him not to. I really do think he knows precisely what he’s doing. In the end, Bob Carr didn’t attend. He was rumoured to be attending. And you mentioned Annastacia Palaszczuk, the former Queensland Premier. She did have some words to say about this.
Annastacia Palaszczuk:
There’s a difference between trade and going along to a military parade. So if it was me, it’d be a definitely no. I would not be attending that. It just is the next level. It’s a bridge too far.
Rita Panahi:
She makes a good point and one cannot overlook the fact that Xi has said he wants the military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. So our ally Taiwan is sitting on wondering why there are representatives at this military parade.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah, and I agree with what Annastacia Palaszczuk has said, but I would also make reference to the point is I think we’re too intertwined with China, both economically in terms of tourism, in terms of the migration programme as well. So this is what happens when you become so intertwined with another nation. We’ve gone too far and it’s time to decouple from China both economically and politically.
Rita Panahi:
Now, Donald Trump has reacted to the spectacle. He wrote on Truth Social, “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America.” Dan, the Trump administration is certainly taking on China, Russia, Iran. All three were emboldened under the Biden administration. That’s changed now.
Daniel Wild:
Well, it has. I mean, weakness is provocative and Trump sort of confounds a lot of his critics because on the one hand he says, I don’t want to get engaged in foreign entanglements and unnecessary wars. And so his critics will say he’s being weak, he’s kowtowing. But then he’s very strong when it comes to standing up to these authoritarian regimes as well. We know that weakness is provocative and Trump has definitely understood that.
And also more broadly, I mean what Trump has done is made a point of saying allies need to do more. Whether it’s the NATO allies, whether it’s the UK, whether it’s Canada or Australia. And I think that’s entirely reasonable. You mentioned before the prospect of China invading Taiwan. Well, we need to be prepared for those scenarios.
Rita Panahi:
Absolutely. It’s in our backyard and this is what people don’t understand. I don’t know how they still don’t understand. And you could understand the confusion perhaps back in 2016, but we’ve seen a lot of Trump in power and we know how he operates now and they still seem to be completely perplexed. But the end result is the NATO partners are spending a lot more on defence. They’re a lot stronger than they were before Trump, and he’s even using the tariffs to encourage certain behaviours from these countries. We saw heavier tariffs imposed on India because of their trade with Russia and China. So he may not want to be involved in forever wars, but that doesn’t mean he’s an isolationist.
Daniel Wild:
Well, that’s right and this is something that people haven’t understood about his tariffs. Everybody understands that tariffs are not economically efficient. Everyone gets that. The point here is exactly as you say, it gives political leverage to achieve other outcomes. That’s why he’s used that and he’s been explicit with that. He has actually said I want to do it because of revenue that we get to protect local jobs and to use it in negotiations with other countries. And the critics who are solely focused on the economics of it don’t understand the geopolitics of it.
Rita Panahi:
The geopolitics are pretty obvious, but I think they’re just so determined to paint chaos around Trump that they don’t see that. And he did that even with the NATO partners. I think there was Spain who refused to increase their spending. So he said, oh, I’ll just hit you with heavier tariffs until you increase your spending.
Now let’s get back to local news. Senator Jacqui Lambie has lashed out at PDPM and Defence Minister Richard Miles, labelling him one of the worst defence ministers ever, and declaring that she is coming for his scalp. This is quite a diatribe. Yeah, have a listen.
Jacqui Lambie:
I’ve got a problem with Richard Miles. All right. So his scalp, I’m coming for. Richard Miles is still like a deer in the headlights and Richard Miles is the wrong choice to make defence minister. I mean, I’ve come across a few defence ministers and I’ve thought they’ve all been bad. He’s the worst of the pack. I don’t even bother with Richard Miles. He’s just a waste of my space. That’s how I look at it. So if he thought I was a problem in his side beforehand, he’s about to get smashed and I’m coming. And as you can see I’m frothing at the mouth. I’ve had enough.
Rita Panahi:
Dan, I think I feel a little sorry for Miles right now. I’m not sure what that’s all about. What’s happening there? Why is Jacqui Lambie so angry and after Richard Miles?
Daniel Wild:
I’m not sure I can shed too much more light on that. I think Jacqui Lambie has a point to say that Richard Miles looks like a deer in the headlights. He does. It’s sort of like he’s gallivanting around the world. He’s sort of got a vague idea he needs to meet with his US counterparts. He’s not too sure how to do it. Him and the Prime Minister are not on the same page at all. I think Richard Miles understands the US alliance is very important, but he’s not willing to take it up with the Prime Minister.
So he is sort of stuck there. He’s sort of presiding over a managed decline of our military, of our army, of our armed services. I don’t think he knows what to do with it. He’s sort of very much a pomp and glamour type operator. So he loves all of it that comes with the title, but I don’t think he’s often willing to do a whole lot of work there.
Rita Panahi:
No. And his counterpart in the US would not be terribly impressed because they wanted us to increase our defence spending and that has not happened. Now Robert Gottliebsen has revealed in The Australian that power companies are seeing a surge in unpaid bills causing industry concern. He writes, “What makes the current development dangerous is that there are very large numbers of people under stress who may become eligible to stop paying power bills.”
Dan, the Financial Councils Association estimates it’s two and a half million Australians living in a financially stressed environment. It’s shameful for a country as rich as Australia, a country that’s resource rich that we’ve got so many who could not afford to pay their power bills.
Daniel Wild:
Well, exactly right. The chickens are coming home to roost. These energy companies have been among the worst offenders when it comes to net-zero, saying we need to have more renewables knowing that it’s going to increase cost. Knowing that it’s going to fleece Australian consumers and now they’re complaining about the fact that people can’t pay their bills. Well, that was always going to happen. And as you say, this is a self-inflicted wound. We have 1,000 years worth of coal. We have an abundance of gas. We have 30% of the world’s uranium supplies, and yet we have an increasing number of people in energy poverty who can’t pay their bills. I just think these energy companies need to take a look at themselves in the mirror.
Rita Panahi:
Dan, you’re right. The power companies were complicit in all the net-zero madness. It’s their industry. They knew it wasn’t going to work and they went along with it because there was so much taxpayer money in there.
Now let’s talk about comedy writer, and is a great comedy writer behind the TV series, Father Ted amongst others, Graham Linehan. He’s been arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport over three social media posts that share his views on trans rights. He’s been on this programme talking about this very issue. He posted on X a joke. He’s talked about a trans-identified male. “If a trans-identified male is in a female only space, he as committing a violent abusive act. Make a scene, call the cops, and if all else fails, punch him in the balls.”
The chief political writer for Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neill has weighed in on this arrest. It’s causing all sorts of headlines in the UK. Brendan wrote, “Graham Linehan was arrested by armed police at Heathrow Airport today. He was thrown in a cell. He was interrogated over his gender-critical beliefs. He was grilled on why he doesn’t accept that someone can be born in the wrong body. He was bailed on the condition that he doesn’t go on X. The stress of this tyrannical experience was so great that he was briefly hospitalised. This is a effing outrage, a shameful day in England’s history.”
I’ve got to agree with that, Dan. It is an absolutely shameful day. You’ve got a comedic genius amongst one of the bravest individuals in the entertainment world to actually speak out at great personal cost, and he’s been arrested and put through such an ordeal that he’s hospitalised.
Daniel Wild:
Yeah. I mean what’s happening in England now is an absolute tragedy in so many different ways. I mean, England has been the home of the ancient rights and liberties that have been passed down for generations, including to our country. And to see what is happening there and it looks like it’s only going to get worse. I mean, it seems every single week it gets more and more absurd and you just wonder, well, what’s going to happen next? When you’re actually getting people locked up in a prison cell for things that they are saying is just the next level of what’s happening there. And unfortunately, with the current political leadership there, it’s only going to get worse. I can’t see how they get out of it in the near term.
Rita Panahi:
Well, one advantage they have is that the voters will have a choice at the next election. You’ve got reform leading the polls and they will reverse course on all this. I reckon we’re in a worse situation in this country because we’ve got the same madness, but we don’t have a real opposition willing to tackle it and dismantle it. So I would argue Australia is in a more dangerous position than the UK right now. Dan Wild, thank you so much for your time tonight.
Daniel Wild:
Thank you.
This transcript of Daniel Wild speaking on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia from 3 September 2025 has been edited for clarity.
