Colleen Harkin on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia – 20 October 2025

In this interview, Colleen Harkin appeared on The Rita Panahi show on Sky News Australia to discuss the IPA’s research on immigration.

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:

… regardless of what actually transpired. Joining me now for more on this is News Corp senior writer, Patrick Carlyon, and Institute of Public Affairs Research fellow, Colleen Harkin. Colleen, I’m shocked by the news reporting on this, but Patrick, I’m going to start with you. I know you’ve covered these stories. There was another day of violence on Melbourne Streets, another day of police resources being eaten up by these hard left agitators.

Patrick Carlyon:

Look, I think Wayne Cheeseman nailed it with the line, Melbourne’s had a gutful. What happened yesterday? I mean, police had rocks thrown at them. But there’s actually a bigger context sadly to this, which is there’s been protests every Sunday for more than 100 weeks running since October 7, 2023. Those protests, the hard left invoke very hateful rhetoric. And a big part of the problem here is they’ve been allowed to get away with it on the whole. And the problem is the tolerance for the intolerant has sort of pushed the line to the point where people are trying it on, because they have got away with it for so long. So I don’t blame Wayne. Wayne Cheeseman really does speak for all Victorians when he says we’ve had a gutful. This has been going on for almost two years.

Rita Panahi:

Yeah, we don’t even talk about the disruption anymore. People trying to go about their business being caught up in this mayhem week in week out. Colleen, the media has demonised those taking part in the March for Australia rallies. But let’s hear from some of those who did take part. And these are in large part to do with anti-mass immigration.

Person 1:

I think Australian was built by Australians, and we’ve got to put the best interests of Australians first and prioritise our people instead of importing people from other nations who have very different and opposing ideologies and values to the Australian and Christian values. We’ve got to protect our people and our country first. It’s not an out there idea. I think it’s very common sense. Other countries do it. This is why we’re here, we’re doing it for our country.

Interviewer:

Yeah. And if you look around, do you think this is a very hateful and racist crowd like the mainstream media has made it out to be?

Person 2:

I don’t think so. I think there’s been a few people who’ve been trying to be agitators, but they’ve been sort of kicked out. Most people are pretty normal, pretty friendly.

Person 1:

Yeah. The vast majority are everyday Australians and moms, dads, kids. People want to get ahead. They want to live the Australian dream.

Rita Panahi:

Colleen, the media have done their best to demonise this group, but this is a real issue and it’s one that Australians care deeply about. And it’s one that political parties have largely ignored, because both the Coalition and Labour seem to like the Big Australia concept, even if a lot of the population doesn’t.

Colleen Harkin:

Right, Rita? I think people are pleased to see this long overdue correction from the police force. I mean, getting past its days of hopefully being politicised during the Andrews era, the COVID lockdowns of old ladies sitting on benches being arrested and the Black Lives Matter protests being allowed to go ahead. So that politicisation, I think people are very pleased to see a plain speaking assessment of what’s actually going on.

And I think that there’s no reasonable Australian who accepts what has happened on the weekend. To use the Commissioner’s words, we have had a gutful of it. The IPA research will tell you that 77% of Australians think that burning the Australian flag should be a crime, should be illegal. And it shows you that this is a mainstream issue that people are genuinely concerned about the media reported as some kind of racism. It is mass immigration that people are concerned about, not immigration per se, and they are very selective with how they’re reporting this.

Rita Panahi:

Look, I think there’s little doubt that the reporters went into this with some preconceived notions, a preconceived narrative, and they did not let the facts for the events of that day interfere with that. And we’ve seen that in the reporting. It’s not good enough.

Now, let’s move on to the Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, clashing with journalist, Rachel Baxendale, of The Australian newspaper at a press conference. This is amid accusations from parents of Victorian children struggling with gender identity. They say that the state government is treating them like the enemy.

Jacinta Allan:

Transgender kids are 15 times more likely to commit suicide. So I would hope, Rachel … I would hope Rachel-

Rachel Baxendale:

[inaudible 00:04:43].

Jacinta Allan:

Well, you’re going to dispute the higher rates of suicide amongst transgender kids.

Rachel Baxendale:

[inaudible 00:04:49] from the Australian Institute of Health Welfare, who would say that there are no federal statistics on that, but they don’t have the data to verify that.

Jacinta Allan:

Rachel, I’m not going to engage with you in a debate about what is the different levels of the rate of suicide amongst transgender kid. I’m just not … That is just so deeply irresponsible.

Rita Panahi:

Colleen, this comes amid revelations that children in Victorian schools are being able to socially transition without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

Colleen Harkin:

It’s an absolute breach of trust, Rita. The government has no place in taking over the role of parents. But what’s really concerning about this is the weaponization of the mature minor’s legislation. And since 2017, the Doctors in Schools programme has had 86,000 consultations. Now, I think the government needs to come clean with what’s going on with those consultations. What is happening when a doctor is in the school? And what do the parents know about what’s happening with their children? The state has no place to parent, it’s the parent’s job to parent.

Rita Panahi:

Patrick, I’ve got to say, I was just so happy to see some of that junk research that the Premier quotes as a way to shut down any sort of debate on this issue being challenged, because that is junk research, it’s activist research, it’s not grounded in fact, and she was finally challenged on that in a press conference.

Patrick Carlyon:

Look, we saw Rachel do that to Dan Andrews during COVID, and I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with Rachel, ’cause she’d probably win. And what she was saying, and it’s been borne out since that press conference, if you look at the research, what Jacinta Allan was claiming there is just one study, there’s some question mark over whether it as an activist study or not. And for her to sort of push back against saying, “Well, this is factual,” is nonsense. And good on Rachel, and she does it a lot. Good on Rachel for holding her to account, because there should be more of that.

Rita Panahi:

Colleen Harkin, Patrick Carlyon, thank you so much for your time tonight.

This transcript with Colleen Harkin talking on The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia from 20 October 2025 has been edited for clarity.