Colleen Harkin on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia – 11 March 2026

Caroline Marcus:

Joining me now is News Corp Senior writer Patrick Carlyon and Institute of Public Affairs Senior Fellow Colleen Harkin. Patrick, Colleen, great to see you both.

I’ll start with you, Patrick. Matt Canavan has set out there his hyper Australian vision. Do you think he’s the person to bring the troubled coalition closer together and confront the threat of an increasingly popular One Nation?

Patrick Carlyon:

Look, he faces a few battles, Caroline, obviously from Labour, from the Teals. The biggest battle is going to be One Nation, whether he can be a legitimate alternative to the votes that they have stolen so amazingly over the past few months. And look, he can be his authentic self. As you said, he’s a conservative. He believes in things. He knows what he’s about. And there won’t be any sort of mucking about on what he thinks and what he’s going to say. He tried to separate the nationals from One Nation. He talked about uniting Australia rather than dividing it. And I think we’ll hear more and more of that kind of rhetoric from him in the coming days and weeks.

Caroline Marcus:

The other thing we’ve heard a lot of lately from Matt Canavan, Colleen, is he’s speaking out against Pauline Hansen, especially some of her comments recently to do with Muslims. He’s also spoken out against Barnaby Joyce, who was a close mate of his, and the nationals after he defected to One Nation. As Patrick points out, Canavan is a conservative, little proud. The former leader was more moderate. Do you think then that this will help stem the flow of conservative votes to Pauline Hansen’s party?

Colleen Harkin:

Well, Canavan has been really consistent his entire political career, which is more than you can say for some MPs. He was an early voice against the voice of early dissenter of the voice, I should say. He’s been a advocate for using our many resources and cost of energy, cost of living. So he’s a plain speaking person that I think people warm to. So I do think that he will claw back some of those One Nation votes. It is the irony, though, that the nationals are the most exposed to One Nation votes because they’re the people who have championed a lot of those causes. And it remains to be seen yet whether the coalition can actually get their act together quickly enough to bring back those votes because there are still a lot of big ticket items that have not been yet resolved between the nationals and the Liberal Party. So there’s still a lot of work to do, but I do think that Canavan is a good operator. He presents well. He speaks well, and he will, I think, stop the bleeding perhaps from the nationals.

Caroline Marcus:

I think he could be right, Colleen, and he is a favourite among Sky News as well. We always loved having him on the network.

Let’s talk about Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke, who’s confirmed two additional members of the Iranian women’s football team have sought asylum, including one player and one support member. Here was Burke talking about that this morning.

Tony Burke:

I made them the same offer that I had made the five players the night before, and that was that if they wanted to receive a humanitarian visa for Australia, which would have a pathway to a permanent visa, I would have the paperwork ready to execute that immediately. They both said that they did. I signed off on that, asked the department to start processing straight away, and overnight, that processing happened. After I’d flown on to Sydney, those two women were reunited with the other five players.

Caroline Marcus:

10 News+ has also aired harrowing vision of the moment the players tried to flee their hotel as minders attempted to chase them. Patrick, the players have already now been offered a place in the A League by one club, Brisbane Roar, but there are still concerns for those players who headed back to Iran. Even though the regime, I note, has said that they are safe, I don’t think we can take the regime in its word necessarily.

Patrick Carlyon:

Look, I think the dilemma for these players over the past few days, Caroline, has really broken the hearts of Australia. I mean, they were damned as they did, damned as they didn’t. Their families, no matter whether they go back or not, are going to be threatened. And we’re talking about the threat of death here. We’re not talking about persecution. So those players who are here in Australia, it’s great to see them being embraced by the community, but they’ve got the same fears for their families as those players who are going home as we speak. I mean, it’s a dreadful situation. And credit where it’s due that the Albanese government and Tony Burke actually did a good job of making this happen as best as it could.

Caroline Marcus:

Yeah, it was a good result, which they deserve praise for. I just wish they had perhaps started the ball rolling earlier because it had become a fiasco, Colleen, over some 10 days from when these women first refused to sing the national anthem at their first game at the Asian Women’s Cup. The government, however, through Tony Burke, has said it’s glad to see the back of some members of the Iranian squad, but he was at pains to say the people connected to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps had not been granted visas, which suggests there had been an application by some IRGC people to accompany the squad here. Clearly though, Colleen, there were people who were acting in the interests of the regime by trying to stop these players from defecting.

Colleen Harkin:

Well, it’s perplexing statement. He’s obviously treading very carefully there with what he has said, because on the one hand, he’s saying that no Revolutionary Guard was provided a visa, and yet the very next sentence is that he’s glad to see the back of some of these people. And there was clearly the scenario where the players were unable to be spoken with unless they were separated from their minders. So from where I’m sitting, both of those sentences can’t be true. It does bring into question about who gets to come into this country and under what circumstances, and particularly Iranian Revolutionary Guards would have a huge question mark for most Australians about foreign interference, the freedom of movement within the country when you’re here. So there’s still a few questions to be asked around how that whole scenario has worked out.

Caroline Marcus:

Yeah, there are. And of course, the Revolutionary Guard are now a designated terror organisation in this country. So anyone who has association with them, you’d have to think has no place here.

The Reserve Bank, let’s talk about that because it has warned the conflict in Iran could unleash toxic inflation and higher interest rates. Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser said soaring oil prices risks driving up interest rates while also tempering economic growth, which could lead to higher unemployment. Patrick, how bad do you think this will get?

Patrick Carlyon:

Look, that’s the million-dollar question, Caroline. I mean, it comes down to how long does this battle go on? You can’t see Donald Trump hanging around for months, but it comes down to that little body of water that no one had ever heard of in Australia until last week, the Strait of Humus, and whether the Iranians can hold the world to ransom and not let oil tankers get through. If that is opened in the next few days or weeks, I think we’re probably looking at a fairly soft landing. I mean, things will bounce back to normal. If it’s not, then we’re going to have higher interest rates. We’re going to have a slowing economy that’s going to lead to higher unemployment and it’s going to be a really rough 2026 if this keeps playing out as it has over the last week or so. It’s really hard to say at this point what’s going to happen.

Caroline Marcus:

Colleen, we’ve already seen the impact of this war on petrol prices, of course, here. It’s meant tweets like this one from Anthony Albanese back in 2021. Well, they haven’t aged so well. Albo posted back then, “Do you reckon Scott Morrison has been to a petrol station lately? Petrol prices surging under his watch.” And if you look closely there, you can see the price, 179.90 for unleaded. I mean, gee, it would be nice to have those sorts of prices now.

Colleen Harkin:

Wouldn’t it just? I think I saw today about 220 at the moment. Look, I think the scenario here is that geopolitics will move prices at the margin, but the real issue is it is an insight into the failures of our domestic policy because over the years, we have demonised our natural resources. We had eight refineries of our own that we are now down to two. We put out about 230,000 barrels a day, which is not sustainable. It’s about 20% of what’s required. So we’ve gone through this process where Australia has allowed itself to be dependent on other countries rather than using the resources that we have. And it is that failure of domestic policy that is what will hit us the hardest, not what’s actually happening overseas.

Caroline Marcus:

Patrick, this fuel supply crisis has led to such panic buying of jerrycans that Australians are now reselling them on Facebook Marketplace for as much as $1,000. Yes, that is what they’re being listed for. One Melbourne seller who listed a fuel container for $500 told potential customers, “No low bull offers. I know what I’ve got.” Patrick, look, it’s hard to know how seriously to take this, but it is true that fuel containers are out of stock in many places like Bunnings, BCF, and Super Cheap Auto. Clearly, people are panicking.

Patrick Carlyon:

Look, I can understand the panic. I mean, you hear these stories. You hear that we’ve got, what, 32 days worth of diesel left. And in the regions, you are having service stations that have run out of fuel, and that has huge flow-on effects in terms of agriculture and food and so on. It really is one of those things with the jerrycans where you can understand people rushing out to buy them. Now, I actually have a jerrycan at home, but I think it only holds about 10 litres, which I think is probably about 100 kilometres worth of driving. I’m not sure they’re going to get you very far, but I can understand the sentiment.

Caroline Marcus:

Well, you might want to consider listing it on Facebook Marketplace. So here they can get quite an amount for you now, Patrick, if you’re looking for an extra bit of cash.

Let’s talk quickly about the official programme for the Sydney Writers’ Festival because it’s been released and it features none other than controversial anti-Israel academic Randa Abdel-Fattah. But in a refreshing change, the festival has also programmed a few Jewish writers and artists. Among them, Lee Kaufman, Simon Tedeski, and journalist, Michael Visontay. Look, Colleen, it’s good that there are some Jewish voices finally being invited to these arts festivals. I know a lot of Jewish artists and writers felt like they had been left out in recent years, but I do note that the Gaza session here only features Palestinian and anti-Israel voices. So I dare say, I don’t feel that much has changed.

Colleen Harkin:

Well, I mean, this is the scenario with all of these writers’ festivals and arts festivals, it is that they have become progressive activist rallies rather than their actual intended purpose. So, okay, they’ve included one or two people now, but they’ve got a history of using that platform for activism, and plenty of conservative people have been not given the same oxygen, the same opportunity. So I think people are looking at these things and sort of going, “It’s just more of the same.” It’s a slight tweak, but it’s not really solving the problem about what their core purpose is actually supposed to be about promoting the penmanship of writing and authorship and what that can do rather than political activism on the taxpayer’s dollar.

Caroline Marcus:

Yeah, too true. And it just seems tokenistic at this point. I mean, I looked at the schedule. Tony Abbott is going to be featuring in the programme, but overwhelmingly, it does feature very far left voices.

Patrick, Colleen, thank you both so much for your time.

This transcript of Colleen Harkin on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 11 March 2026 has been edited for clarity.