Colleen Harkin on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia – 2 December 2025

In this interview, Colleen Harkin appeared on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research into the National Curriculum.

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.

Rita Panahi:

Joining me now for more on this is News Corp Senior Writer Patrick Carlyon and Institute of Public Affairs Research Fellow Colleen Harkin.

Patrick, she repeatedly claimed that she had answered the question. I watched the full interaction and she did not, not when it comes to the serious claims she made of a political coverup.

Patrick Carlyon:

Absolutely. Look, I mean, they weaponized a lie, Penny Wong and Katy Gallagher. They destroyed careers. It was predicated on something that was untrue. And now they’re turning around now and basically trying to say, “We don’t want to talk about it. That was then. What’s it got to do with us?” They actually destroyed lives-

Rita Panahi:

Absolutely.

Patrick Carlyon:

… with this lie.

Rita Panahi:

And the lie is the coverup. We’re not talking about the alleged sexual assault, the alleged rape, Colleen, but the whole notion of why this implicated the Morrison government and Senior Minister and Chief of Staff was that they had sought to cover up. They had sought to mistreat an alleged victim of violence for political gain. And that just was not the case. And the PM and his ministers need to take some accountability for the role they played.

Colleen Harkin:

Well, they hounded Senator Reynolds in the Parliament time after time, day after day. They made Fiona Brown’s life misery all based on a weaponized lie. For them to now hide behind victims of sexual abuse is… It’s cowardice. It’s nothing less than cowardice. These mean girls, Penny Wong and Katie Gallagher, they really are showing their true colours because they did go after what they knew, well, what I perhaps shouldn’t say, is a lie. And they have, as Patrick just sorted, they’ve destroyed people’s reputations and livelihoods. This is long past an issue of just being a sexual abuse issue. This is of a political coverup, which is now being exposed on the other side of what they were prosecuting in the first place. They should, as a bare minimum, apologise to Senator Reynolds and Fiona Brown. And then it brings into question the $2.4 million that Brittany Higgins was given. That’s all been covered up as well. I mean, I really feel for-

Rita Panahi:

Well, we need to have transparency on how they came to that decision, how they made that decision within 24 hours. Linda Reynolds wasn’t allowed to defend herself in that case. And Patrick, the PM, and his ministers are obviously on the back foot on this issue, but last week, the shadow cabinet rejected a proposal to demand a full inquiry into the Brittany Higgins scandal. I mean, why would they make that call? Why would they, when they’re actually got the PM on the back foot, step back?

Patrick Carlyon:

Yeah, that’s right. Look, the word that strikes me is tawdry. This has all been so tawdry in the way it’s played out. And I think Linda Reynolds, as well as Fiona Brown, are owed the truth and transparency in the telling of that truth. I mean, they really were destroyed by something that was wrong.

And I agree with you, or I agree with Colleen. An apology is a starting point. And we’ve got to look at this mediation. It was $2.4 million over the course of a day. Linda Reynolds wasn’t allowed to be in the room. There’s all sorts of question marks over that. And you look at the Commonwealth’s handling of the Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown cases against the Commonwealth. They’ve got the best cases there are in the country who have cost apparently 25 grand a day to defend these charges, these claims. I mean, the whole thing stinks.

Rita Panahi:

Now, a breakdown of the $58 billion of funding for the NDIS across Australia has revealed whether taxpayer money is being spent. New South Wales is naturally receiving the most funding overall with 17.8 billion, but half of the top 10 funded council areas nationwide are in Southeast Queensland.

Patrick, there’ve been renewed calls for a complete overhaul of the scheme’s payment system after it was revealed support workers are submitting invoices written on serviettes. I mean, really, that is just astonishing.

Patrick Carlyon:

The NDIS was a good idea. I think most people agree that’s a nice idea. It’s a noble cause. It’s been executed woefully. It’s costing $50 billion a year at the moment. It’s estimated it’s going to cost $100 billion a year over the next decade. And you just got to look at the autism rates in Australia. It’s two and a half times the rate in Great Britain, and that’s because you get money from the NDIS. I mean, it’s pretty simple. It’s all about the numbers here. You’ve got one in six six-year-old boys who are on the NDIS.

Rita Panahi:

Crazy.

Patrick Carlyon:

It does not make sense.

Rita Panahi:

And we’ve got the rates of kids being diagnosed with autism, Colleen, just skyrocketing about double the rate of Canada.

Colleen Harkin:

Correct.

Rita Panahi:

And why is that? Because we’ve incentivized that diagnosis.

Colleen Harkin:

Yeah. It also brings into question… And the NDIS is clearly broken and somebody has to do something, and both sides of politics have sat there and watched this train wreck unfold. It’s now $58 billion. It’s the same expenditure, give or take, as Medicare.

And as you just said, Patrick, the amount of boys, six-year-old boys, who are now on NDIS for autism, it brings into the question as to what kind of support does an autistic person need. Mild autism and severe autism and a low-level autistic child in a classroom, how much support do they need or not? And it prevents those people that the NDIS was originally orchestrated for. All of those people who really do need the 24/7 care, and those people who are elderly, who are unable to look after themselves, with disabilities, they’re not getting the money that they’re supposed to be getting because it’s being routed at the other end.

Rita Panahi:

Now, a new poll conducted for the Australian Financial Review has found support for One Nation has jumped to 26% for Gen X males. That’s men born between 1965 and 1980. Male support from the Baby Boomer generation sits at 22%. The poll has showed that One Nation is scoring a record 18% in the primary vote overall, which is nearly triple what it was during the last federal election.

Patrick, Gen X men backing One Nation even more strongly than Baby Boomers would surprise a few people.

Patrick Carlyon:

It would. I’m a Gen X man. I’m part of that cohort. And I think, look, what’s happened is people are struggling. A lot of men are struggling financially. And I think One Nation has been very clever at sort of leveraging the fact that the immigration levels are very high. They are restricting opportunities for older men in that age group. And the Liberal Party’s blown itself up by arguing with itself over net-zero and so on. One Nation has been very clever. And I mean, you look at those numbers. They’re at triple the rate that they were at the election.

Rita Panahi:

And they’ve been clear on things like net-zero. It’s not just immigration. One Nation are against net-zero. You know they’re against net-zero, and you know there’s not people within the party who are agitating to embrace net-zero-

Patrick Carlyon:

That’s right.

Rita Panahi:

… as with the Liberals. There’s just too much conflict within the party.

Colleen, what are the chances of One Nation and the Nationals one day forming a coalition? I mean, is that beyond the realms of possibility?

Colleen Harkin:

Well, I don’t have internal insight to that, but it would be very interesting, wouldn’t it? Because if the Nationals and One Nation did merge as some kind of conservative alternative, I imagine that would be a very strong contender. There’d be a lot of people who would feel like they’ve found a home. One Nation’s membership increase has been exponential, and apparently their greatest cohort is now in Victoria, which says something.

Rita Panahi:

Really?

Colleen Harkin:

Yes, apparently. I’m told from a person who knows. And they are intending to stand in the Victorian state election next year. I think there’s a lot of people who feel like they don’t have a home at the moment. Both of the major political parties are in decline from primary support. So it would be a really interesting concept if those two parties merged.

Rita Panahi:

And it would be very interesting to see if the Victorian Liberal Party, the Coalition, preference One Nation if they’re standing in those state seats, because my first instinct would be they won’t, Colleen.

Colleen Harkin:

Well, I think there is… One Nation’s ambition is anti-labour. It’s not actually anti-Liberal, but they do have this sort of challenge about where does the Liberal Party stand with these very core principles that they keep losing sight of. So it’ll be a very interesting thing about the preferences and where they fall and who hops into bed with whom at the time.

Rita Panahi:

Now, a mother is preparing to launch legal action against the South Australian Education Department after her daughter was allegedly taught about bestiality and incest during a sex education presentation. Nicki Gaylard pulled her three children out of Renmark High School last year after her 14-year-old daughter and her year 9 female classmates were given a lecture by a third-party organisation called headspace Berri.

Colleen, the students were reportedly exposed to the concepts of bestiality and incest and were also allegedly shown a picture of someone who had gone through gender reassignment surgery. Really, is this the sort of thing we should be having in a high school?

Colleen Harkin:

Absolutely not. And you imagine the only reason that we know about this is because that poor girl went home and told her mother. There were a number of other students in that class at the same time who didn’t say anything. The students were unsupervised. The person who came in was unvetted. But for that one brave child, we wouldn’t know anything about it. And there are a number of third-party providers who go into schools who are… Nobody knows who they are, what they’re saying. They’re unvetted. There’s a lot of material that’s available to schools by third-party providers either about gender issues, about climate alarmism. We really don’t know.

Rita Panahi:

So are these private entities that are receiving taxpayer funds to provide these programmes, or are they government-funded bodies?

Colleen Harkin:

A bit of everything, a bit of private support from corporations and individual trust funds and government funding. There’s a mixture of all sorts of funding elements to them, but they are well resourced and well exposed. They get the materials into the schools quite readily, and there’s a lot of material in there that parents would be very alarmed about, not just about gender issues and everything about-

Rita Panahi:

Oh, race issues.

Colleen Harkin:

Right, sustainability, their place in the world that we’re all… climate alarmism. There’s a lot of material that kids are exposed to that is completely age inappropriate.

Rita Panahi:

And completely political, ideological-

Colleen Harkin:

Absolutely.

Rita Panahi:

… really doesn’t have a place in the school system.

Now, Patrick, the Australian reports that despite repeated requests, headspace Berri has not shared the presentation with the child’s mother, Ms. Gaylard. And she said, “My daughter’s childhood was shortened through exposure to completely inappropriate material that headspace won’t even let me see. How can they be happy to show to children what they’re ashamed to show to adults?” Again, I don’t understand why there should be any sort of secrecy about this material. I mean, if you don’t have an issue with it, if you think it’s suitable for children, then show everyone and say, “This is just education material and this particular parent is overreacting.”

Patrick Carlyon:

I think you found the word, the right word, ideologically driven. And I think there’s a pushback from a lot of parents now, aren’t there, who are saying, “Hang on, I want to know what my kids are being taught.” And I think the fact that this organisation won’t provide the materials to this parent actually goes to this lack of transparency where parents are actually jumping up now, sort of saying, “Hang on, I didn’t send my kid to school to learn about this ideologically driven sort of concept.” I think it’s happening more and more, and it’s good to see someone actually standing up and saying, “Hang on. Enough.”

Rita Panahi:

I think parents have to get interested, Colleen. I think a lot of parents’ eyes were opened during COVID when they got a glimpse of the homeschooling and saw some of the curriculum material and just how ideologically driven it is. But people are busy and I think a lot of this stuff gets missed, but you’ve got to take interest in what’s happening in your kids’ classroom.

Patrick Carlyon, Colleen Harkin, thanks so much for your time.

Colleen Harkin:

Thank you.

This transcript of Colleen Harkin talking on The Rita Panahi Show – Sky News Australia from 2 December 2025 has been edited for clarity.