Scott Hargreaves On Credlin – How Politics Has No Place In Sport Sky News Australia

On June 2, IPA Executive Director Scott Hargreaves discusses with Steve Price on Sky News Australia how Australians are sick and tired of politics being injected into their favourite sports.

Sport is a critical part of Australia’s social fabric, which for generations has brought our nation together, yet is now being used by a privileged elite as a weapon of political division and woke virtue signaling.

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.

Steve Price:

All right. There’s plenty of news to get across today, so let’s get stuck in straight away with our first panel tonight. Joining me is Pauline Hanson’s One Nation chief of staff James Ashby and the executive director at the Institute of Public Affairs, Scott Hargreaves. Gentlemen, welcome.

Steve Price:

Let’s start with that minimum wage decision. Let’s start with the Fair Works Commission decision on that. Now, we’re going to go through this with some details with Terry McCrann shortly, but already business groups as we know have slammed that decision.

Steve Price:

The other big issue here is, of course, what impact it might have next Tuesday. Everyone’s fearful of what might happen with the Reserve Bank next week.

Steve Price:

Scott, I think a lot of people would hear wage rise and think, “Great.” But at the same time, if you’re running something like a small business, you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, how am I going to possibly pay that?”

Scott Hargreaves:

Absolutely. It’s devastating for small business, which is already struggling, and certainly it’s not helping the confidence because what we’re seeing now is the classic wage price spiral, and we’ve just come out of a big spending budget by a big spending government, which has admitted that it’s actually putting upward pressure on inflation in this country. Inflation is in danger of running out of control, wages will always be playing catch-up, but the economy won’t be getting back on track.

Scott Hargreaves:

So that’s the environment that I worry about, whether there’s sustainable jobs and opportunities for growth in small business. That’s actually what we want to see.

Steve Price:

Yeah. I’m no economist, and I’ll talk to Terry about this shortly, but I mean, really seriously. I mean, if you pay people more money and small business, it’s got to come out of their pocket, James. So surely then they will put up the price of whatever they’re selling, which means that adds to inflation, doesn’t it? I mean, just those things naturally follow.

James Ashby:

Well, you hit the nail on the head there, Steve, and this means now the minimum wage is $45,000. I don’t know about you, Steve, I couldn’t live on $45,000. I’m not used to living on 45,000 any longer, and I recognize the fact that living on that sort of money these days in Australia is difficult with the way that we’ve seen prices rise right across the country.

James Ashby:

But what I struggle with, Steve, is this government have looked after migrant workers ahead of Australian workers. We have now seen from the 1st of July migrant workers who are bought into this country to work in Australia will now be paid a minimum of $70,000 to work in this country.

James Ashby:

Now, migrant workers get looked after better than what Australian workers do. There’s something wrong there and, as you say, the prices will ultimately get passed onto the consumer.

Steve Price:

And you’d think, wouldn’t you, James, probably next week, Reserve Bank Tuesday, they look at this and they might put it off for a month. But there’s going to be another interest rate rise, as sure as the sun will come up tomorrow, won’t there be?

James Ashby:

Well, it’ll be, what, the 12th interest rate rise in under a year. I know that people are already struggling here. Regional Queensland is struggling. I know the shops are struggling off the back of that because where people have got to put extra money into their mortgage repayment, they can’t afford then to put it into nights out or put it into their kids.

James Ashby:

So yeah, it’s got a massive roll-on effect, and this will impact on business and jobs, ultimately. If you’ve got to pay more for people to work in your small business, ultimately any small business operator is going to make that decision, “Well, do I really need as many staff as what I have at the present moment?”

Steve Price:

I’m sure you both heard what I said about Ben Roberts-Smith. I’ll ask you about it in a moment, James.

Steve Price:

But Scott, we know that some on the left are going to use this to try and tar the whole ADF. What did you make of not so much the decision yesterday, Scott, but the fallout since, and what some people like Shoebridge, the senator, are saying about Ben Roberts-Smith.

Scott Hargreaves:

Oh, that is of deep concern because, of course, this is our defense force here. These are people who, literally, put their lives on the line for the nation, and we want them to know that we as a country are behind them. And to see a pile on in this case where we’ve taken instances, which have not yet been proven to a criminal standard of proof, as an opportunity to smear the work of the entire defense force to cast out on their ability to conduct operations within the rules of engagement, it’s tremendously distressing this sort of collective guilt that’s being encouraged, the collective shame, the stripping of honors.

Scott Hargreaves:

That’s the environment in which we’re in at the moment, and it’s just given a leg up to the people who have that kind of an agenda that in their comfortable armchair has been said, and that’s a very concerning thing.

Steve Price:

James, I read the two citations for Ben Roberts-Smith, the Medal of Gallantry and then the Victoria Cross. I don’t know about you, James, but I’d be nowhere near brave enough as to do what he did. You can’t then just tear that up because of some other allegations that have been made not yet proven in a court of law. I mean, it’s disgraceful the way that he’s just now being trashed.

James Ashby:

Well, Steve, I don’t know about you, but I’d be very happy to have a beer with Ben Roberts-Smith and I think millions of other Australians across this country would, too. It hasn’t changed my opinion of the man.

James Ashby:

We send these SAS soldiers across into battlefields. Remember what they were fighting over there. This was a Taliban, this was a caliphate against the West, and they weren’t there to shake hands and kiss babies. They were there to make sure they set a very clear message to these bastards who wanted to commit terror across the globe, and they weren’t there to make friends with them.

James Ashby:

Look, I don’t condone war crimes, but I have worked in a printing game which printed off of cards and which are basically the terms of engagement for any soldier. I’ve worked in that environment. I’ve read the conditions. I’ve got enough soldier mates after living six years in Townsville to know the environment that even peacekeeping soldiers in Timor faced. And I’m sorry, but if you are faced with anybody who wants to kill you, I don’t know how I’d react.

James Ashby:

Now, I’m not saying what’s happened is right, but all I know is I cannot wear the shoes of Ben Roberts-Smith. Nobody in this country can, unless you’ve been to war, and particularly unless you’ve been an SAS soldier.

Steve Price:

Absolutely. Well said, James.

Steve Price:

State of Origin, I sat down to watch it this week and I was at the MCG the week before for one of the Indigenous Round games. We’ve got to put up with the smoking ceremonies before every sport event now, but this went to another level. Have a look at what unfolded at Adelaide Oval during the week.

Uncle Karl Winda Telfer:

We need to have the conversations leading up to the end of this year, and I think we’re mature enough to make the right call. Yeah?

Steve Price:

So we’ve gone from smoking ceremonies, Scott, to lectures about the Voice before sporting events. When did that happen?

Scott Hargreaves:

This is incredible. I mean, the best friend of the No campaign at the moment are the people on the Yes side of the debate. Australians are sick of being patronized. They’re sick of sports being hijacked.

Scott Hargreaves:

We did a poll of Australians where we asked what they thought about all these sporting figures using the platform of the sporting codes to pursue trending causes like the Voice, and 62% of Australians said straight out they’re just sick of it. They just want to watch the footy. And this gentleman has taken the opportunity of the ceremony to try and make a point.

Scott Hargreaves:

And actually also, I found it very patronizing, not just to say, please vote yes, but actually to make the right call. I mean, this is the sort of patronizing attitude that we’re seeing more and more.

Steve Price:

Yeah, the mood wasn’t read at all. James, did your television survive that little speech?

James Ashby:

I don’t know about you, Steve. I’ve given up on the NRL, to be quite honest. Number one, it should never be played at State of Origin in South Australia. Number two, we shouldn’t be dictated to by somebody who was probably paid 700 bucks to go and do that short smoking ceremony there on the field. I’m sorry, but every time you see one of these smoking ceremonies or welcome to countries, somebody is clipping the ticket. You’re paying for this as part of your ticket. No wonder the cost to get into those grandstands now has gone through the roof.

James Ashby:

I won’t watch it. I’m sick of it on aircraft. I don’t want to hear it in sporting codes and the NRL, forget this, forget the LGBTIQ+ crap that you go on with. Let’s just get back to playing the sport, and that goes for all codes.

Steve Price:

Yeah, James, Scott, I think a lot of Australians agree with that. Thank you very much, guys. We’ll talk to you soon.

This transcript with Scott Hargreaves talking on Sky New from 2 June 2023 has been edited for clarity.