In this interview, Mia Schlicht appeared on The Bolt Report Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on housing and immigration.
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.
Andrew Bolt:
Joining me is Sky News host, Danica De Georgio and Mia Schlicht of the Institute of Public Affairs. Danica, these labour women pushed the most nasty claims against the liberals of having covered up a rape. I mean, the claim against… This is such a devastating claim, particularly against Linda Reynolds, a woman herself. And now they will not admit to what two judges have independently found, there was no coverup. Their claims were based on a lie. Why won’t they admit to the truth and apologise?
Danica De Giorgio:
Because Andrew, they’re going to be left with egg on their face. I find it so curious that the Mean Girls had absolutely everything to say about the whole fiasco years ago and suddenly they’re very quiet about it. Let’s not forget that the Mean Girls in Labour weaponized this, claiming that there was a coverup. They also weaponized it claiming that the Morrison government had a problem with women because they had an election to win. Labour then went on to win the election and no doubt that this was a big part of the Morrison government loss.
Now we find out from two judges that there was no coverup, yet Linda Reynolds, and also don’t forget Chief of Staff Fiona Brown, their careers politically have gone up in flames. And Katie Gallagher and Penny Wong have nothing to say about it. No apology. I also find it curious from Senator Gallagher in that interview over the weekend, she was asked about that $2.4 million in compensation. Again, she was quite quiet. And all these years later, Andrew, we still have absolutely no idea why us taxpayers gave that money to Brittany Higgins. All we know that some of it was for 40 years of lost wages, yet Brittany Higgins has worked since then. So the Mean Girls can continue being quiet about this, but guess what? It’s going to haunt them like a ghost. So now is the time, in my view, for an open and independent inquiry into what’s gone on here.
Andrew Bolt:
And Mia, it really strikes me as appalling that those two Labour women had so much to say in pushing what we know now was a lie. They might not have known it was a lie, but it was a falsehood in any event. They spent so much time pushing a lie and now won’t admit to the truth that it was a lie. What is going on?
Mia Schlicht:
Well, it’s absolutely appalling, Andrew. That’s exactly right. And it wasn’t just these two Mean Girls. Let’s not forget, it was not just them. The media in this scenario was absolutely complicit in driving some of these untruths forward. And it was even found out in the case that Brittany Higgins told about over 20 misleading statements, and the media completely failed in their job to uncover that those statements were in fact misleading and they failed to report on it ever since. They’ve gone quiet on it. And I find that incredibly frustrating. There are so many people in this scenario who need to be held accountable and that’s just not happening.
And unfortunately, I think it’s easy to put it down to these two just being Mean Girls, but I do think it is far more sinister than that. As time’s gone on, I think it is becoming far more apparent that labour did weaponize this scenario for political purposes. And the more that Senator Wong continues to sit there giving these non-answers, it’s becoming more and more apparent.
Andrew Bolt:
Oh, and the superior smirk I think really is infuriating in this circumstance, exactly right. The lowest behaviour, Former Labour Senator Kimberly Kitching now alas no longer with us, was sitting in my kitchen only a couple of days before she died, calling out to me, explaining what a fraud these allegations were. Labour knew, I reckon, and they still pushed them.
The immigration issue, Kimberly … Kimberly. Sorry about that. She’s on my mind. What a terrible loss for labour and in fact for Australia that was. No, apologies. But the immigration issue is really going to take off. Danica, the Albanese government says, “Don’t worry, we’re going to fix the shortage of houses that’s now crippling the ability of the young to buy.” They’re going to fix that just by building a lot more of them. 1.2 million homes in five years. But the latest figures for new home approvals that came out today show a huge drop instead of an increase in home approvals. 6.4% fall in October, nearly 2% over the year fall with a price to income ratio now of 8.2. So I don’t know how you can afford to buy a house if you’re young. I don’t know if you can, Danica. What do you make of all this?
Danica De Giorgio:
Well, no, I mean, this is a hot button issue, Andrew amongst people my age, amongst my friends, that we are all facing the very real possibility of being renters for life and paying off somebody else’s mortgage. And even if you are lucky enough to afford even a small one bedroom apartment in Sydney, you’ve got to go further out. And I can’t even fathom… My parents’ generation, when they were in their early 20s, got married, built their first home. Even the prospect of building a home is just foreign to me and people my age right now. The problem is like two million migrants since it was elected and yet it has not achieved not one of its housing targets. It’s pledged to build 1.2 billion homes by 2029, yet it’s 20% under its forecast. 180,000 homes were built this year. 240,000 needed to have been built. And I think this is why the coalition needs to really, really seize the moment, seize on this issue and put a proper policy together to reduce migration, come up with a figure.
Susan Lee says that she won’t have a figure in the short term. Well, then what’s the point of having something if you’re not going to put together a migrational figure for the year? But also policies that appeal to young people and prosecute them. I mean, you recall, Andrew, the coalition took a policy to the election whereby young people could use their super to buy their first home. But again, these weren’t prosecuted. So I think now is a time to seize on this because it is a real problem and it’s a concern.
Andrew Bolt:
Yeah, but this is the thing, isn’t it, Mia? They said, “We can fix this by fixing supply. More houses, home approvals falling.” They don’t want to tackle demand, which includes obviously immigration. What do you make of that?
Mia Schlicht:
Well, look, Andrew, I’m no economist, but even I can see one plus one equals two here. So you’ve got an issue with supply. The Albanese government has absolutely failed to meet their promises in fixing supply shortage of homes in Australia. This isn’t just a one-off shortfall that they’ve had here in this month. This is a consistent failure that they’re having with the National Housing Accord target month after month. They have completely failed to live up to their promise of fixing the supply issue here in Australia.
So then you’ve got to start looking at demand. Now demand, we have this increasing influx of migrants into this country. Housing isn’t keeping up. So of course, housing and rental prices will soar through the roof. It is inevitable. If the government can’t fix supply, which it can’t, it needs to recalibrate and start looking at the demand side of things.
Andrew Bolt:
I would’ve thought that’s pretty obvious, myself. There you go. Mia Schlicht, Danica De Georgio, thank you very much to you both. Talking about housing, the Green’s very much into improving their own accommodation. They’ve had their party room in Parliament House renovated at an incredible cost of $1.6 million. You could buy a couple of new homes or build ones anyway for that money. How do the Greens justify that? That’s it for me.
This transcript with Mia Schlicht on The Bolt Report Sky News Australia from 2 December 2025 has been edited for clarity.
