Sharri Markson:
Well, joining me now, IPA Chief Economist Adam Creighton and former Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes. Great to see you both. So Hollie, I want to start with you on this because as a mother, you have dealt with the NDIS and as a politician. You’ve examined the policy very closely. What’s your response to Mark Butler’s proposal that he announced yesterday?
Hollie Hughes:
Look, a lot of this needs to be done. Absolutely. This needs to be cleaned up. It has become an absolute behemoth and it goes back to the Gillard government releasing this programme like a jumbo jet being built after it had taken off. She gave the states a free pass by saying, “Don’t worry, the feds will pick up all the slack of any extra increase in costs that might occur.” And of course, that just meant the states vacated the field absolutely everywhere they had already been and were supposed to continue giving services. But some of the commentary today is honestly… I had to turn a show off because I was going to throw something at the television. People out there going, “Oh, all providers need to be registered.” There’s all these terrible providers going through the courts. Most of them, if not all of them, are registered service providers that are going through the courts for fraud.
Registration is not about quality of service provision. They have to hire auditors, but the auditors are hired by the companies themselves. They’re not sent in by the government. And they work with these companies to pass them because no one’s going to hire an audit company that fails people. And it’s about money, not quality provision. So that is not some silver bullet, but some really silly intellectually bereft commentators seem to think is going to be some solve to the question. We’ve got community and social participation funding being cut. And you know what? Some of that is rubbish and the service providers are ridiculous and the support workers are not skilled. They’re not doing what they should. And here’s another tip. The really bad ones come out of the big behemoth registered providers generally as well. Sealed, supported independent living. One of the biggest areas, we’ve got people with million dollars, two million dollar plans living in their own home or a home by themselves with round the clock carers.
We need to have a discussion. Is $2 million a year really the best taxpayer way to spend that money? But also, is it best for that person to be isolated with round the clock carers? I don’t know. Dr. Prunty had an article today about, “Everyone’s got a bit of a tism.” Well, let me tell you, if you’ve got a child with what I call classical autism, which was the autism before this ridiculous autism spectrum disorder rediagnosis that everyone has somewhere on the spectrum, for families with a kid whose autism is a real disability, an actual disability, that is so insulting to hear, “We’ve all got a bit of the tism.” That’s not how we look at it. That’s not how our children feel about it. It is so insulting. And just… I know I’m taking up time-
Sharri Markson:
I’ve got to get to Adam as well.
Hollie Hughes:
The reassessment part… I’m sorry, Adam, this is just… I am so fired up about this. The reassessment part, if they are genuine about reassessment, that’s fine. We’re going through one now privately because my son’s 18 months from leaving school, so we got to look at it. It’s at a cost of $2,000. But I’m going to say, if they want to look at it sensibly, all the kids and people that went onto the scheme transitioning via the states, they should just automatically go through without reassessment. And I’ll tell you why. When my son was diagnosed with classic autism, intellectual disability, global developmental delay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, the entire support we got from government was a very short parental support group. And we were transitioned onto the scheme. No one is diagnosis shopping when the supports available to you are a short run parental support group. [inaudible 00:03:53]-
Sharri Markson:
There are a lot of issues here. I think you need to contact Mr. Hollie and get involved. Yeah. Well, you need the whole show, that’s for sure. And we need many hours to talk about the failings of the NDIS. Adam, I’m going to move on to the next topic because we’re just running out of time now.
Hollie Hughes:
Go on, Adam.
Adam Creighton:
Okay.
Sharri Markson:
Adam, I’ve been really keen to talk to you about why the US economy is doing so much better than Australia’s. I mean, the US markets have sharply outperformed the ASX. Here at home, the Roy Morgan consumer confidence is sunk below even COVID era levels, households still being smashed by power bills, inflation, week growth. Tell us what’s going on.
Adam Creighton:
Well, certainly so many journalists like to make fun of the Trump administration, but the reality there is that the inflation rate is about half here. The economy’s growing much faster than here. And Trump’s even managed to slash the immigration rate in the US and the economy’s still growing faster than here. And as you say, the stock market’s booming far greater returns than Australia since Trump was elected. And I think part of it is that energy there is so much cheaper. There’s so much more energy production, so much more exploration. Basically, the US has dumped net-zero completely, and I think that’s something Australia is eventually going to do as well. And that’s basically feeding through to confidence and the whole US economy.
I mean, the reality is all the smart people in the world who are not in America still, they still want to migrate to the United States. That’s where all the innovation is. That’s where the new startups are, the best companies. The comparison with the rest of the world, Europe and Australia is so stark and it’s becoming more so. It’s embarrassing, frankly. And I think that probably explains some of the animus towards Trump.
Sharri Markson:
Yeah. But yet as you see in the media, as you mentioned there, so much criticism of Trump, even though their economy is doing much better than the Albanese governments. I want to turn to this topic today, something a little bit different. So as many as half the toilets in new public buildings nationally, from stadiums to shopping centres to office blocks could be designated gender-neutral. This is under a new draught building code. So Hollie, I mean, this is also a privacy and safety issue.
Hollie Hughes:
I am so sick of this woke agenda and the people that are buying into what is a very small minority of people demanding this sort of treatment. I certainly wouldn’t be sending my children into a gender-neutral toilet. I wouldn’t want to go into a gender-neutral toilet. But then seriously, maybe do it your gender with what bits, because for those of us that have sons, you don’t necessarily want to follow them into the bathroom either. So it’s just gross and it’s pulling into this woke agenda and enough is enough. And for public money to be spent on it is just another example of the total waste that we see coming from governments of all levels when they’re trying to appease these sort of minorities.
Sharri Markson:
Adam, aside from the many other issues related to female safety, I mean, is this exactly the kind of red tape builders and developers don’t need?
Adam Creighton:
Look, that’s certainly true, especially now when construction costs are absolutely spiralling because of the fuel crisis and because… We can’t get various imports here fast enough. So it’s crazy. Also, there’s a federal government dimension here, that construction code has input from federal bureaucrats. And surveys show that 90% of Australians do not support that. So why is the Liberal Party and the National Party in one nation not going harder on this? I would be. Certainly, I’m not a political advisor, but this is red meat surely in the lead up to various elections. It’s completely outrageous. And yes, the costs. Of course, the costs are going to go up dramatically to build commercial buildings and schools and so forth. It’s really crazy. And it just goes to show you how the Canberra bubble is so out of tune with the rest of the country.
Sharri Markson:
Adam, just one final question to you, just to balance the time ledger-
Adam Creighton:
Sorry.
Sharri Markson:
That’s all right. Adam, I was interested in your thoughts.
Adam Creighton:
I can talk about NDIS too.
Sharri Markson:
I know, but I’m going to ask you about something else. I was interested in your thoughts on this, Adam, because I know you’re kind of a bit of a civil libertarian in a way. The UK is banning anyone born after 2008 from ever legally buying cigarettes. Now, the health benefits are obvious and I agree with it, but from your perspective, what do you think? Is this classic Nanny State overreach?
Adam Creighton:
Well, yeah, look, I think it is classic Nanny State overreach. Of course, it’s not going to work. It’s just going to lead to a black market and older friends will sell cigarettes to younger friends, et cetera. That’s going to go on for years. So clearly, it’s tokenism. It’s about being seen to be doing something. It’s barely going to change smoking rates, I would say, especially since, as we know in Australia, you just get a huge black market that’s going to happen in the UK as well, and it’s going to be easier there. This is so much closer to other countries. So look, I don’t think it’s right. It certainly wouldn’t fly in the US. It wouldn’t be constitutional because as we know in Australia and the UK, there is no constitution really, at least not for civil liberty. So you do whatever you want. That’s a sad thing in my view. So look, it’s not going to make any different [inaudible 00:08:56] smoking rates. Of course, smoking is bad, but frankly, there are far worse things in society and children’s wellbeing is in stark decline, and I don’t think it’s because of cigarettes.
Sharri Markson:
All right, Adam, Hollie, thank you so much. Got to go.
This transcript of Adam Creighton on Sharri Sky News Australia from 21 April 2026 has been edited for clarity.
