Andrew Bolt:
Joining me, Mia Schlicht, research fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs, and Michael Danby, former Liberal… federal Labour politician, apologies, and chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
Michael, I’m so sorry for that and for insulting you like that. I’ll give you the first go at an answer. How do you get this incredible stack, which doesn’t even include all the non-Muslims and non-Arab artists who’ve been attacking Israel? What does this festival tell you?
Michael Danby:
It tells you that the “woke mind virus” includes compulsory hatred of Israel and that this is mandatory in virtually all of the arts, including Evelyn, the Aboriginal writer in Victoria, who doesn’t understand that there’s a book called the Bible. The Jews are the Indigenous people, Evelyn, cited in that book that many people in Australia around the world know, from that part of the land in the Middle East.
The colony that you’re complaining about is giving you an award. Why do you accept the award? And there’s no genocide, poor Evelyn. It’s a war. 900-plus elite Israeli soldiers have been killed fighting Hamas terrorists. And Hamas admits now that over 50,000 of the casualties were males between 18 and 64.
So really these people live in a cloud-cuckoo-land. You’re right, Andrew, to point to the Sydney Biennale as the worst. I mean, slagging off philanthropists who’ve donated money to the arts over the years just is a real low point for them. And even poor lefty Mauri Schwartz has been attacked constantly by them as a genocidaire.
Andrew Bolt:
Yeah, I didn’t really want to defend Mauri Schwartz, but principles above the personal, so I will. But Mia Schlicht, this is one of the things you get when governments fund bureaucrats to fund particular artists they like instead of what I think should be the model. And that is, if you want to support the arts, subsidise the purchases of arts tickets and paintings and books and let them choose who they want to patronise.
But how do we end up with an art scene that is so dominated suddenly by people who are Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, or whatever?
Mia Schlicht:
Well, I think it just shows, Andrew, that unfortunately the arts, particularly here in Australia, is no longer about freedom of expression. Instead, it’s all about political activism and individuals peddling ideological vendettas. That’s what it’s become.
And I think it’s no surprise that support for the arts in Australia, particularly monetary support, is just drying up left, right, and centre, because many of these donors don’t want to see their money going towards activist causes, in particular causes that peddle antisemitism.
Now, what I think is pretty ironic is once all these private donations dry up, basically the only way that these arts groups will be able to stay afloat is through taxpayer-funded grants or through government subsidies. But wasn’t it the Albanese government, I think it was about a year ago now, who got up there and said, in an effort to combat antisemitism, his government would actively look at withdrawing funding from arts and university groups that don’t take an active stance against combating antisemitism?
And looking at this lineup now, Andrew, I’m still waiting for Albanese to deliver on that promise, and I think I’ll be waiting a long time.
Andrew Bolt:
It’s just extraordinary to me. It looks like the Sydney Biennale has come for every possible Palestinian artist they could find. Funnily enough, they didn’t put anything like that effort into finding Jews.
Michael, unless they… maybe they invited you to come along just for a debate, but the thought that they don’t want to debate, that’s what really sickens me. What weak people they are, that it’s got to be a group love-in.
Michael Danby:
I mean, and this is the important point that you and me are raising, is that this is creating a zeitgeist, an atmosphere, a mentality in Australia that led to Bondi. Now, if we don’t take this stuff seriously, if we don’t take the preachers in the extremist mosques, if we don’t take the importation of people who have fanatical views that don’t share Australian values, all of this is what the Royal Commissioner should be looking into, because it led to Bondi.
Those of us who’ve been talking about it for two and a half years, including you and Chris Kenny and Sharri Markson and Peter, all have been pointing to the fact these people are making the extremist minority in Western Sydney hysterical. And when they see this ticked off by all of these woke art bureaucrats, they think that it’s okay to go and do what they’ve done or other things.
Andrew Bolt:
Yeah. Look, I’m not saying that they’re going to be preaching hate from the stage, but it’s the essentially colonising, that word, colonising the arts industry that once had such strong Jewish representation and freezing out Jews instead. I mean, I think that’s just astonishing, unforgivable.
Meanwhile, Mia, the war in Iran has caused panic buying at petrol stations, and that’s caused some independent outlets in rural areas especially run dry, which has hurt farmers especially, of course. Energy Minister Chris Bowen today said this was a shortage caused by panic buyers, not by a cut in supply. Here he is.
Chris Bowen:
There are real pressures in rural and regional Australia in particular. For example, the Minister of Agriculture, Transport and Minister for Industry and I just convened a very important meeting with key stakeholders. The head of the service stations agency informed us that they have seen demand increase in Mildura, for example, by 100% at their service stations, and in the Adelaide Hills and Barossa by 280%.
Andrew Bolt:
Mia, is he right? Is this caused just by panic buying? And even if it is, should we be letting fuels be diverted away from farmers from rural areas and towards motorists in the city, when I think the opposite should be the case?
Mia Schlicht:
Well, I don’t think it’s just panic buying alone. And I’ll make the point that I don’t think Australians would feel the need to panic by if they had any faith that this federal government had taken their fuel supply seriously.
Now, look, we’re meant to have 90 days of fuel supply. Nobody actually knows how much we have. Some people are saying we’ve got 35 days. Bowen’s saying, “No, we have more of that, but it’s being held offshore.” Well, that’s not much help to us now, is it?
But certainly I’m really concerned that our regional communities aren’t going to have the fuel they need to deliver the food and the fibre and the resources that the rest of the country relies upon to put dinner on the table each night, to keep the lights on in the cities. Certainly this will hurt regional communities first, but the aftershocks will be felt by those in the city very, very shortly.
And I’ll make the point that the federal government here will find any excuse to not take the blame on this. They’ll blame the conflict in Iran. They’ll find any reason.
Andrew Bolt:
It’s so true.
Mia Schlicht:
There will always be global conflicts that are disruptive.
Andrew Bolt:
No, got to go. It’s so true, Mia. Mia Schlicht and Michael Danby, thank you.
This transcript of Mia Schlicht on The Bolt Report Sky News Australia from 10 March 2026 has been edited for clarity.
