Andrew Bolt:
Join me and Mia Schlicht, research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs, and Michael Danby, former Federal Labour Politician and Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade. Mia, there’s two issues here really. One is that ban doesn’t seem effective. And second, what kind of savagery are we seeing among some of the young?
Mia Schlicht:
Yeah, look, Andrew, it’s been about a hundred days since this ban was implemented and it couldn’t be more clear to me that it is failing, but it also comes at no surprise. This ban was rushed through parliament. None of the background work had been done to actually make sure that this would work or even step out how it would work. So to me, it’s absolutely no surprise that it’s not stacking up, because at the end of the day, it was all a big press conference, a big press tour for the Albanese government. It wasn’t actually about keeping children safe. And I think it’s ironic that the people who are peddling this ban saying it was so important to keep our children safe were the same ones who advocated for our children to be locked inside their bedrooms for a number of years during lockdown.
But that point to the side, I do think we are seeing a particularly unsettled cohort of young people at the moment. I think we are seeing a rise in violent behaviour. And I think one of the reasons for that is because there are lack of consequences for young people. I’m from Victoria, and each week we see abhorrent violent acts being committed on our streets by young people. And more often than not, the courts let these young people off with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. So of course that sets the tone for young people that they can commit very antisocial acts, sometimes violent acts, and not be held accountable for that.
Andrew Bolt:
Well, you remind me there, Michael. It’s a little bit like the ban of Victoria and machetes. The law abiding, you use machetes only for gardening. They hand them in and the people that use machetes for stabbing, they keep them. This social media ban might turn out to be a little bit of the same kind.
Michael Danby:
Well, didn’t you expect, Andrew, that young people under 18 would be able to get their way around the government’s ban? I have a deeper question though. There’s always been bullying, but being able to circulate this on social media makes you more powerful, more… The evil that you do can be seen by a wider group of people. I wonder whether social media in the end is going to turn out to be a good thing. We even see states like China via TikTok using this to infiltrate their ideology into young people’s minds. So I think the government’s legislation was very optimistic. And I think that social media as a general topic that didn’t exist before, I wonder whether it’s had a bad effect on society, particularly on younger people, particularly since they’re not taught anything at universities about history or geography or about how our societies work.
Andrew Bolt:
Well, of course, and religion is there for most. I would say, by the way, that the kind of violence I see these kids doing, the kicking and all that kind of stuff, kicking people in the head while they’re down. You can see that on mainstream media now. I haven’t seen anything there that I haven’t seen on a Hollywood movie or on the streamers. But to grace tame, Mia, she was made Australian of the year, but has since absolutely disgraced herself. I don’t know why she hasn’t been stripped of this. First, she screamed of course, that we should also have an intifada here from Gadigal to Gaza. She screamed, “Globalise the intifada.” And yesterday on the ABC, she denied that Hamas terrorists raped Jewish women in the October 7th slaughter and kidnapping, and then went on when, just cross-examined on this, went on to prove that being anti-Zionist tends to mean being totally ignorant of the facts and not ashamed to be so ignorant. Listen.
Hamish MacDonald:
Kimney’s texted in saying, “Can you please ask Grace why she’s selective in her outrage?” She says, “I’ve never heard her condemn or speak out on behalf of the Israeli women who were raped and killed by Hamas on October 7.” Have you spoken about that? Have you expressed outrage about that?
Grace Tame:
I’m not going to think to the level of entertaining any kind of propaganda Hamish. Yeah, I can’t do that.
Hamish MacDonald:
What’s the propaganda included in that question?
Grace Tame:
Those things have been debunked.
Hamish MacDonald:
The UN special representative on sexual violence and in conflict has said that there are reasonable grounds to believe that conflict related sexual violence occurred. Are you saying that that is propaganda?
Grace Tame:
Awful things are being perpetrated by both sides, but this is not about whataboutism. This is not about selective outrage. I’m outraged by all of the violence. Would that we could get it all to stop?
Hamish MacDonald:
It’s just a question as to whether you’ve condemned that portion of what has occurred.
Grace Tame:
Yes, and that’s a tactic of the bad faith actors is to try to trip people up, to get them to condemn this and condemn that. Clearly, I don’t support any of it. We shouldn’t be here arguing over brass tacks.
Andrew Bolt:
Mia Schlicht, your response?
Mia Schlicht:
Yeah, look, Andrew, unfortunately on this one, I’m not surprised at all. If anything, this has just solidified the view that I had that we have well and truly lost Grace Tame to really extreme political activism. And that is a real shame because the initial work that Grace Tame set out to advocate for was actually quite important. She was doing some really good stuff in the domestic violence space. Now we seem to completely lost her on this cause and all she seems adamant on looking into is just extreme political ideology. And I don’t think this is an unusual view that I hold. Nike dropped her as an ambassador about a year ago now because even they acknowledged, as far left leaning as Nike is, even they acknowledge that Grace Tame has gone too far and she’s too divisive of a figure. So I think this does send a really important message to advocates that it’s important that they stay in their lane and stay true to the causes that they’re advocating for, because the second they get lost this political activism, that original cause, all that work just gets lost.
And I think we’ve lost Grace Tame forever.
Andrew Bolt:
Michael Danby?
Michael Danby:
Those mass rapes, gang rapes and the rapes of the Israeli women who were captured as prisoners in the tunnels were key to Hamas’ strategy. It was a civilizational attack on Western democracy designed to cause mass fear and they thought people would leave Israel as a result of that. Second thing is, young Western liberals, leftists, refused to confront the issue of these rapes because it’s so awful. It might shake their foundational instincts against Israel. If you have to confront them, if you understood what it was all about, then you can’t stick to the same narrative that [inaudible 00:07:07] and that his bunch of fanatics have got you all believing.
Andrew Bolt:
Well, I was thinking, should I run that photo that you would be familiar with Michael Danby, of one poor woman, a photo that came out, I think it was even released by Palestinians, of a woman who very, very clearly from the bleeding had been viciously raped, and not just that, and sent it to Grace Tame and say, “Really? You have no response to that? It’s all propaganda? It’s all a hoax? Both sides are doing it.” Honestly, it is this gust thing. What is that? There’s no moral compass there whatsoever, as far as I can tell. That’s my personal opinion. But talking about ignorance and bias, and why Mia is being anti-Trump, anti-Israel, and anti-America, so fashionable among artists? I’ve shown before how that’s now destroyed the Sydney Biennale, one of the sponsors now walking out after one of the acts there started leading the crowd into chance of resistance by pro Palestinian, anti-Israel.
We saw it again yesterday at the Oscars. Here are just some, it’s just some of the politicking there yesterday, raging against the Iran war, raging against the war against Hamas terrorism, and raging even against ICE agents in America rounding up illegal immigrants. Have a look.
Kaouther Ben Hania:
We don’t need war. There is a war right now. People are being bombed. We need accountability. We need justice and we need peace.
David Borenstein:
When we act complicit, when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it.
Clara Khoury:
It’s all connected with ICE, with whoever’s occupying and killing and doing all these atrocities is connected to ICE, to what’s happening in America.
Javier Bardem:
No to war, and free Palestine.
Andrew Bolt:
Honestly, that smug smirk on Javier Bardem’s face, like how good am I looking? It says so much to me. Mia, your reaction to all that politicking?
Mia Schlicht:
Oh, I’m so sick of it, Andrew. I am just sick of it. The more these celebrities get up and try to pretend they’ve got the finger on the pulse of what’s really happening, the more they speak, it just shows how out of touch they really are. And I wish they would bring Ricky Gervais back to the Oscars who did a fantastic job at calling out these celebrities for how insufferable they really are. And by his monologue at the Oscars, when he was calling them out for this, all the celebrities in the room were fuming, they were so offended. And it was everyone sitting at home cheering him on going, “Thank you. Someone needs to silence these celebrities.” But look, I’m sick of it. I wish they would stick to what they know. I’m sure your viewers would be horrified if I jumped on your programme and started singing a song. So I’ll stick to what I know, and I hope they stick to what they know.
Andrew Bolt:
Well, I don’t know about that last comment at all, to be honest with you. But Michael, why is it deemed appropriate to ram your politics down the throats of a watching audiences who are just there for the movies? Probably most of them don’t agree with you, but you’d never seem to see with very, very rare exceptions, Clint Eastwood probably be the only one that’s coming to mind, see someone advertising conservative politics at such a venue. It’s only the left. Why would that be?
Michael Danby:
And Clint Eastwood would never bought it to the Oscars. I think Mia’s got a point. We need to have Ricky Gervais back there as an antiseptic, each Oscars. There was an earlier bloke who did it too called Paddy Chayefsky. So actors and people like this are doing incredible damage to their brand. I don’t want to go and see a Javier Bardem film again. Look, just as I’m completely weary of Guy Pearce now, I used to think was a great actor. They really put the brand on themselves of being politically correct, woke, and it alienates their audiences, their agents, and people who promote them, learn to their cost.
Andrew Bolt:
And also I thought Javier Bardem was saying no to war and free Palestine. The free Palestine cause is only in his mind because of a war that Hamas actually started his advertising their cause on the basis of the slaughter they perpetrated on October 7th. There’s a little bit of hypocrisy there, and I don’t think he’s reconciled the two positions at all. Michael Danby and Mia Schlicht, thank you very much to you both.
This transcript of Mia Schlicht on The Bolt Report Sky News Australia from 17 March 2026 has been edited for clarity.
