Colleen Harkin On The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia – 5 March 2025

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

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:

All right. Joining me now is Institute of Public Affairs Research Fellow and Director of the IPA Schools programme, Colleen Harkin. Colleen, let’s talk about the Australian curriculum. Analysis of the curriculum shows of the more than 2,400 lessons suggestions in the revised curriculum, three quarters relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture, and it even mandates that maths teachers incorporate indigenous dance and storytelling into maths classes. What more can you tell me about this revised curriculum? It seems to be even more preoccupied with race and climate and even more politicised.

Colleen Harkin:

It is. So the national curriculum, there’s a body called ACARA that sets the national curriculum and it says its priority is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders histories and culture and sustainability, which is climate change, diversity, equity, inclusion, all that kind of activist agenda. And it mandates that it’s in every subject, every year level, every opportunity. So it’s not just maths, it’s phys ed, it’s art, it’s science, it’s every single subject. Every year level the child is exposed to this kind of activism within the curriculum.

Rita Panahi:

And it’s mandated. It’s more like the teachers have a suggestion. You may like to do this. They have to …

Colleen Harkin:

Well, it’s what I call a marker, is it states what they want them to do and then it gives them a whole range of suggestions as to how they might go about doing that. But it is mandated that these are priorities. It actually specifically says these are the curriculum priorities.

Rita Panahi:

Oh, dear me. Now it seems like no amount of activism is even enough. The Australian Human Rights Commission, which we of course fund as taxpayers, has scolded schools for celebrating Harmony Day on March 21, claiming that it actually hides long-standing systematic racial discrimination and that they should rename it International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, turning it the day from a protest against racial discrimination into a celebration. So they seem to be upset that this isn’t angry and activist enough. It is been celebrated. People are celebrating different cultures and foods, and we can’t be happy in school. We’ve just got to always have a grievance, always just be hating the country. Tell me about what’s happening there and are schools taking notice of this advice?

Colleen Harkin:

Yeah, so there are about 13 name days, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander name days in addition to those cross-curriculum priorities we just spoke about. Now, Harmony Day in theory is a really nice idea, that we should celebrate our shared values, but that’s not what they’re aiming at. This is again, a constant sort of activist agenda to divide us. They don’t want harmony. What they want is this perpetual industry of grievance and they’re teaching the children from very young to be indoctrinated to that divisive agenda. We did a research article on the early learning framework, which is mandated by the government for early learning centres. So we’re talking children who are literally in nappies, who are mandated to do a daily acknowledgement to country-

Rita Panahi:

Oh, dear.

Colleen Harkin:

… to fly an Aboriginal flag. And that’s how we find things like in kindergartens where children are walking in and touching the ground and saying, “Always was, always will be.” This agenda is running all the way through all of the institutions from the earliest of years.

Rita Panahi:

And it does not stop once high school finishes. It’s rife through the universities. And Macquarie University has students being forced to sit through a series of far left learning modules. And in these modules they’re reportedly told that if you are living in Australia and you are not Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, well you are a settler and therefore a guest. And Colleen, I guess I understand then why we need to have all these welcome to countries because the message there is this isn’t really your country.

Colleen Harkin:

It’s not very inclusive, is it?

Rita Panahi:

Well, no, I’ve always said, as a migrant, I see this acknowledgement of countries, welcome to countries. Not only do I see them as incoherent in many cases, but it’s a PC way of saying, “Go back to where you came from. This place isn’t yours. You’re not as entitled to feel this is yours as somebody else,” based on ethnicity. I mean, that is so toxic.

Colleen Harkin:

And how long do you have to be here before they will consider you Australian? At what stage? Who am I? Who are you? I mean, you’re an immigrant. I’m born here. We’re all Australian. And this is the device gender.

Rita Panahi:

You’re a settler. This is, if you go to Macquarie University, you’ll be taught that it doesn’t matter if you go back seven generations and you have no other country in the world where you have an allegiance or a link, you are still a settler. You’re a guest.

Colleen Harkin:

Yeah. And so then Rita, it’s no wonder that our young people don’t want to defend Australia. We did a survey that showed that almost half of our young 18 to 24 year olds, if we were in the same situation as Ukraine right now, they would not stay and fight.

Rita Panahi:

No.

Colleen Harkin:

And why would you, if you’ve been told all along, you don’t belong, your presence is illegitimate, why would you stay and fight?

Rita Panahi:

Well, the whole country is not legitimate. It is on stolen land. There was an invasion, there was a genocide. If you’re taught to be ashamed of your history, why would you go to war to try to defend that country?

Colleen Harkin:

Correct. And we spend all this money on universities. We want the return on investment is to have a workforce and a future generation that are independent and capable people. But what we’re churning out is just a bunch of activists.

Rita Panahi:

We are, and a bunch of self loathing activists. It’s not even healthy activism. It’s not actually activism that, I don’t know, could be enriching and make them happy and make them productive. Before you go, the IPA’s Education programme Class Action, it’s had a name change. Tell me about that and tell me in 30 seconds how you’re countering the madness that’s happening.

Colleen Harkin:

So we changed it from Class Action. It’s now called the IPA Schools Programme because it was sort of confused with being to do with the law and that wasn’t helpful. What we’re doing is providing free curriculum materials for teachers. They can download it free from the IPA’s, from schoolsprogram.org.au website. We’ve also done things like given every primary school in the country a board game about the first fleet that positions the story of who we are and how we came … the first fleet and the arrival of that. All of our curriculum materials are free. It’s a balanced view of our history. We have a history to be proud of, and we should be proud of it and the children should be learning to be proud of it. And to know the facts, like the balance of-

Rita Panahi:

Just to know the facts. Just to actually get something other than this black armband view of our entire history. Colleen Harkin, thanks so much for your time.

Colleen Harkin:

No problem.

Rita Panahi:

Tonight. Still to come.

This transcript from The Rita Panahi Show Sky News Australia on 5 March 2025 has been edited for clarity.