Andrew Bolt:
Joining me, Mia Schlicht, the research fellow with 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. Michael, I am sure you have seen this all very close up to, this granting of public money to ethnic groups and the more estranged from everyone else, the better. And in this case, $670,000 to renovate and extend the headquarters of a group of a Muslim association that mourns the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini. I mean, goodness me, why shouldn’t Labour have handed over our money for that in the first place?
Michael Danby:
Firstly, let me congratulate you when you’re exposing the relentless bias of Doran and Lions. When the Royal Commission comes to examine the zeitgeist that led to those terrible events in Bondi, I hope they look at the media, academia, the arts, et cetera, as creating it. So of course they’re going to give money to outfits like that. It’s in Julian Hill’s electorate. Now, Julian’s woken up, Julian Hill, the member for Bruce, to the fact that these kinds of allegiances of the Labour Party with the ISIS brides, with the Gaza refugees, with the money to these outfits that are supporting Khomeini are causing the Labour Party to have large numbers of patriotic working class people defect to One Nation. So hopefully they will stop the grant, hold it in place, not give them any more money. But it’s not the Country Women’s Association and it’s very dangerous to fanaticize people with this kind of message.
It’s not the kind of message that should be going to Australians of Muslim origin, particularly of Shia Islam. It’s a very apocalyptic religion, or it can be, and we need to be very careful in financing it.
Andrew Bolt:
Now, Mia, Julian Hill might just plead total irresponsible ignorance. I had no idea these people would be admiring someone like that, what a fool. But the whole point is, even if he didn’t, why are taxpayers paying for the renovation of a mosque and Muslim centre in the first place? Now, they may say it’s for the youth outreach, which is a bit scary given what they really believe, but essentially we all know what it’s about. Why are we paying for it?
Michael Danby:
He needs electorate, Andrew.
Andrew Bolt:
No, I’m talking to Mia.
Mia Schlicht:
Well, no doubt, Andrew. I’m sure. I’m sure they will plead ignorance in this situation, but in this particular instance, ignorance isn’t quite enough. And I agree with you. I’m not really sure why spending taxpayer money on such sectional interests such as these is ever for the benefit for the wider Australian community. But what I find really, really interesting is this Albanese government is one who does everything in the name of social cohesion. So when just a few months ago, it was tabling legislation that was one of the most assaultive on freedom of speech this country has ever seen, and it was all in the name of social cohesion. Now, can you tell me how providing funds for an organisation who is mourning the death of a dictator who sponsored terrorist activity on Australian land, including anti-Semitic incidents, how is that promoting social cohesion? But it was okay when it was assaulting the freedoms of 98% of Australians in order to convict the 2% who were doing the wrong thing.
It was okay to justify that in the name of social cohesion. So tell me how I’m no politician, but if I wanted to promote social cohesion, I think I would start by withdrawing funding such as this.
Andrew Bolt:
Well, I would’ve thought so. But even if you didn’t think they were going to be ending up grovelling at the feet of a terrorist sponsor, surely these sorts of grants are inappropriate. Fund integration, not separation. I think that’s pretty simple. But Michael, we are having now a debate about what to do about Muslim immigration. The parties, boy, you’ve got a range of options. You’ve got Pauline Hansen who wants to slash Muslim immigration, the opposition that wants tougher checks on radicals, and Labour claiming, well, the existing checks are enough. But these people talking about checks, would any of these checks have stopped the entry of a single one of the people this week mourning the death of Ayatollah Khomeini? I mean, I would guess that virtually none of those mourners would have been flagged as of radical or identify themselves as such in the first place.
Michael Danby:
I think you’re right, Andrew. And the problem is that we have a large population of people who we don’t know whether they are aware of their responsibilities as Australian citizens. And I would have thought that the right thing to do for Tony Burkhart and [inaudible 00:04:59] is to go out to those Shiite mosques and for Julian Hill to go out to the mosques and his electorate and explain to them what their civic duties are in a time when there’s an international conflict and where a brutal dictatorship. Remember, we classify as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards as terrorist groups. So they should be very clear in explaining it to those recent immigrants. If they’re not aware, they should be aware. And you don’t have to pass hate laws, Mia, you just have to go out and show some political leadership. You’re not a politician, but I was. That’s what I do.
Andrew Bolt:
And Mia, what scared me for years is that every government, but especially this Albanese one, tells us, “Don’t worry, we can borrow now. We’ll spend like crazy because eventually we’ll get the money back later when things pick up. Things will be sunny later. We’ll start saving then.” They presume there will be no shocks, but there always are. There always are those rainy days. Now we’ve got this war and Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock today says, “Oops, this could drive interest rates even higher and growth even lower.” Here she is.
Michelle Bullock:
It’s too early to say what the economic impact will be. Events are moving rapidly and there are different ways that this can play out. A supply shock of this nature, for example, could add to inflation pressures and the potential implications for inflation expectations also are something that we’re very alert to. A prolonged impact on energy markets could have adverse effects on global economic activity and result in downward pressure on inflation.
Andrew Bolt:
Mia, I think an economic shock is really going to change Australia and change Australian politics. I think this could be very, very bad, well, for Australia, of course, but for the government in particular.
Mia Schlicht:
Yeah, I think so, Andrew. I mean, look, Australians are all struggling enough as it is with the cost of living crisis we’re seeing at the moment, and that’s only expected to get worse. At the end of the day, if you want to relieve cost of living, the only way you can do that is by actually growing the economy. And that seems to be something this Albanese government has not understood. In fact, I think I’d go as far to say the only leader in the Western world who has understood that idea is Trump, who has taken a very clear lead in actually growing the economy. Instead, we have an Albanese government who has shown no restraint on spending, yet isn’t growing the economy. And what that leads to is higher inflation, which again, hurts Australians the most. So moving forward, I think this is going to be a real turning point for the Albanese government because Australians can’t put up with many more shocks, and I think there might be a pretty bad one coming.
Andrew Bolt:
Michael Danby, I feel like the economy’s a bit of a sitting duck right now.
Michael Danby:
Think of the following indexes, Andrew. Lowest productivity and growth in the OECD, approaching a trillion dollars debt, 50% of people on government benefits is the source of their income. And as for what Matt Canavan pointed out with our oil storage, we’ve got a three-month strategic reserve over in the United States. What happens if the Chinese are sitting astride our shipping lanes as the Japanese nearly were in a second world war? We shouldn’t have the oil over there. We should have it here, but we’ve got a lot of economic trouble here caused by, if you ask me, a lazy Labour government, and they haven’t even done a dollar of percentage increase in defence expenditure.
Andrew Bolt:
Michael Danby, Mia Schlicht, thank you very much to you both. Really appreciate it.
This transcript of Mia Schlicht on The Bolt Report Sky News Australia from 3 March 2026 has been edited for clarity.
