The Chaser Report - Barnaby Joyce's One Nation

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

The Barnacle has left the Nats and made the baffling decision to join One Nation, which exeprts — aka Charles — never saw coming. So what's next for Barnaby Joyce? Dom and Charles dive into all the issues he's likely to stoke outrage on, and also predict how long until the inevitable Hanson/Joyce split. ---Order the 2025 CHASER ANNUAL: https://chasershop.com/products/the-chaser-and-the-shovel-annual-2025-preorderListen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Now, Charles, we make predictions on this podcast sometimes. We call the future. We say how things are going to go down. And I think in the interest of honesty, we do sometimes need to check back and see how things progress. So with the news that the Barnaby Joyce has definitively decided to join

One Nation and run for them in New South Wales on the Senate ticket at the next election. We needed to review some of our predictions when it came to Barnaby Joyce or as we hailed him at one point, the future coalition Prime Minister. Yeah, so I, only a few months ago, made a very bold prediction, which was that Barnaby Joyce would not join One Nation, even though it was rumoured at the time, but we'd instead join and become the leader of Reform A.U. As a new party, as a Farragist, Nigel Farah. push into Australia.

So let's take some ads and then see how we feel about how things have actually evolved and looking back at those predictions. So Charles, you're kind of half right in that he has joined a party which he's just said in an interview, his first interview since joining One Nation with 730 the other night. He says that One Nation is like reform under Farage. Yes. And it's like Marine Le Penin. France, Georgia and Maloney in Italy, or Maga in the US.

This is Barnaby's hitched his wagon to all these movements. Yes, that's right. So, look, I was only wrong in the actual sort of prediction, right? Other than that, the vibe was completely correct. It was just the general sort of... The minor detail of whether it would be one nation or not. And, I mean, and perhaps, Charles, there were things you didn't know when you made that prediction. For instance, what's clearly happened is that Pauline Hans,

Johnson's gone and done another burker stunt in the parliament. And Barnaby's just gone, you know, I'm done, I'm on board, sign me up. Wherever you go, I will follow. That's what, probably what tipped it, isn't it? He saw the burqa stunt and went, wow, that's a bit anti-Muslim, isn't it? Sign me up. That might be, that it might have been the moment. I don't know.

Yeah. Whether or not that was. Did they ask that on the 730 report? Oh, they certainly did. His response, I didn't wear a burker, which no one can deny. with. No one can deny that, yeah. Yes.

Sarah Ferguson did jump on that. No, actually talking on ABC Radio, in fact, he said, yes, he didn't wear a burker, but he just wanted to go and he wants to serve. That's the point you need to recall. He wants to serve, apparently. Right. And so what's the, seeing as we're doing about predictions, what, how long do you reckon until Parnaby Joyce and Paul and Hansen have a falling out?

Because just to note, Paul and Hansen has, I'm pretty sure. Fallen out with every single person that she's ever worked with. Do you remember David Oldfield? Oh, of course. Remember that? Yeah, David Oldfield, who I once spoke to Sydney University. Good times. And he was a One Nation, I think, MP in New South Wales.

The closest analogy, of course, is Mark Latham. Yes. So you've got a former leader of the nationals and a former leader of Labor who've joined One Nation. So she's got a broad church in there, except they all leave the church. Start their own church. Which is quite like the actual Christian church, too, by the way. Oh, because Pauline Hanson's getting a bit old, because that was the other speculation we had was,

is it going to be Barnaby Joyce's one nation? Is what's going to happen? There's a passing of the torch. And suddenly it becomes B-J-O-N. B-J-Lon. Yes, let's not talk about whether there are any literal torches involved. 71 years old, Pauline Hanson, is, and Barnaby Joyce has been telling everyone I'm only 58, I've got more years to go. But more to the point, as we've discussed before, he's going.

got young children who need, you know, use, who need, um, cash for their, for their lives, their school fees. This is a big change for One Nation, because one, I've always associated One Nation as the party, like, you know, Marine Le Pen and reform and everything like that. It's, there's a little bit of white supremacy. Well, Joyce says in the interview here, a nation can have multiple faiths, race and color, but not multiple cultures. Right.

So that's interesting one. White and red. So you're allowed to, you're allowed to completely assimilate. Yes. And but also he's very much anti-immigration. And I think, I mean, Barnaby Joyce here, if we just look back at his track record in politics, where was he between 2013, say, and 2022? What jobs did he have during that period?

Did you recall? When a lot of the current migrants who are in Australia would come through. He was the deputy prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister. and Deputy Prime Minister. But that doesn't have any power, Dom. No, he was in the government. This is all, no, but no, no, Dom, you keep on casting these aspersions.

You know, Pauline Hansen puts on a burker and suddenly, oh, Barnaby Joyce, what are you doing with that burger on? No, he wasn't wearing the burger. Same with Prime Minister. Like, oh, you're a Deputy Prime Minister. Why didn't you fix the things that you claim are now a terrible thing? No, he wasn't Prime Minister He was deputy Prime Minister

He was not in the row I mean he was probably in the room But he wasn't he wasn't signing the papers Oh I'm in charge It's like I'm the deputy of the person in charge But you've got to remember too There's no responsibility there at all Sorry

And it's not as though Barnaby I mean the National never have control of immigration That's been the Liberals And it's not as though Barnaby Joyce Has rather brilliantly used His control of the nationals to force his coalition partners into following his lead on any policies unless you look at climate or same-sex marriage or any of those sorts of.

But other than that, the nationals have never, they've never been setting the agenda for the coalition. It's always been the pupils. No, no, yeah. I mean, they're just, they're just puppy dogs. It's humiliating, really, how little influence the National Party has. Well, the other thing is, the other thing you might want to notice, by the way, is that a couple of weeks ago, Paul Ian Hanson's One Nation changed its name.

To One Nation. It's not Paulian Hanson's anymore. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So. Yeah, interesting, isn't it? Do you think that was part of the deal?

It was like, I'll join, but only if we just call it one nation. One, one nation. Yeah. I mean, either that or they've realized that to, for the name it to be a full tribute to Paul Keating's policy platform, Macon's Prime Minister. Yes. When One Nation was first used in Australian politics, why do they need to go back to that? It's just to pay tribute to the Anzac Bridge, which was part of the funding package.

Was it? Oh, there you go. One Nation. I always think, I look at that bridge and I think, well, it wasn't One Nation good back when it was Paul Keating's economic package. Just for the younger listeners. For deep cut. We had a recession back in 1991, I think it was.

It was a recession we had to have. It was the recession. And Pauline, it's not optional. Paul Keating, eventually, having driven Australian to a recession, took over as Prime Minister, as one does, and decided that his economic package, he needed to sort of have a Keynesian package of investments. And one of the things he did was fund the Anzac Bridge. He was a huge.

It was like the biggest economic package, I think in Australia's history or something back then. I don't think it won in the election. He still lost to John Howard. No, no, no, that was the Houston. No, that was Houston election. He won. Oh, okay.

That was the Swedish victory of them all for him. Yeah. Okay. So, well, let's take some out. And then the thing to ponder is whether this party actually has any chance of doing anything major because Barnaby Joyce reckons it does, but is he right? The Chaser Report, more news, less often. So Charles, Joyce in his interviews, he's had a lot to say about all this.

He's clearly been thinking very deeply about all these matters. He says that Australia would have joined the sort of populist movement, the global populist movement, earlier but for compulsory voting the issue is don't we still have compulsory voting so how's this going to work how are they going to actually be able to do any of the things that they want or is it just about getting a cushy seat in the Senate? Yeah look I think a lot of it for Barnaby is

he wants a leadership role because it comes with extra entitlements and he's always said that because he's got so much alimony and stuff like that he really needs the money so apparently that he's been very honest about that yeah he's been very awesome but no the key with all these parties is you want to pick an issue that you then can't possibly influence or change. Like the one thing that reform are you or Marine Le Pen don't really actually want to do is end mass immigration because then they'd have nothing to complain about, right?

Oh, right. So you can't solve the problem, or your whole platform. And that's why mass immigration is the perfect thing because it's actually not a problem. It actually does things like drive down the price of housing constructions. But you can blame immigrants on taking all their houses and then you exacerbate the problem by getting all the governments on the back foot, but they can't actually do anything about it.

And then you can just keep on being an opposition party forever, basically. Oh, so if you're saying people across about migrants getting all the houses, and then we actually bring in lots of extra migrants to build more houses for those people, then the problem will be solved. And so much better if they aren't allowed in. Yeah, well, yeah. So that you just, but the point is you don't really ever, you don't really want to achieve anything. So I think actually having compulsory voting is very useful for the One Nation Party because it means that they can continue to sort of complain from the outside while not actually having to ever take government.

Well, here's the thing. So he's running apparently for the Senate in New South Wales, Barnaby Joyce, of course, before. For the upper house. Oh, for the Senate or the Up House? No, no, no, it's the Senate. Sorry, the Senate in the South Wales. For the Federal Senator. So he was previously, of course, the Senator from Queensland.

Who? Choice, wasn't he? Wasn't he, wasn't he a Queensland senator? No, he's the member for New England now. New England. Before that, he was, if I remember correctly, it's going back a long way. Before he went to the Lower House. Oh, right.

He was a senator for, I think, Queensland. I'll just double-check that. Yeah, no, he was. He was in the Senate in Queensland from 2005 to 2013. So he did, yeah, two or three terms up there and then went south of the border to his hometown of Tamworth. So he was in, he was a national senator, then an NL&P senator, then, anyway, then had to join the nationals in New South Wales. He'd been jumping around a lot, it's the point. Can he win a seat in the Senate in New South Wales at the next election on the current polling you'd think definitely?

Yeah, so, yeah, no, I think he will. Like, one nation, like, if you ever said an election. I'm they polling 18%? It's 14% is the quota, so it's basically one seventh, so it's about 14%. But you can win it on half that. And if you do your preference flows, you only need a few percent to get you up on your way and then you've got a seat. So yes, I think the answer is he will be, I'm willing to call it actually, he will be the next senator for New South Wales. So here's an interesting one, and I'm just going, I'm just trying to sort of piece this together.

One Nation won a Senate seat in New South Wales this year, but then the guy resigned. So they've actually got a vacant Senate seat at the moment in New South Wales. Do they? One Nation. So apparently, I'm just double-checking this fact because I sort of haven't really been paying attention. But if that's true, why can't he do it now?

Yeah, I don't know. Oh, you know what? He could be Deputy One Nation leader now and get that higher salary if that's what it's all about. Yeah. So he doesn't need to is the answer. And then they get an extra sentence there. And then he gets in the next election.

Yeah, that makes sense. And I think there's also, I think maybe Barnaby Joyce joining maybe Puntz Paul and Hanson's party up the scale in terms of, it's now considered a proper party or something? Party status. Yeah, it's got, well, I mean, I think they always get party status if they've got a sitting member. Well, they've had, they won three seats in the Senate last time in this year's election. But you get extra entitlements or something. the bigger you are.

So anyway, the point is, I think, look, who knows? I mean, what they will be trying to do is the sort of Farage thing, which is sort of to push Australia to the right, especially on mass immigration and also net zero. The funny thing is that the way the British Labour Party has dealt with reform, now, which is now polling at 25% in the polls over there, has been to essentially copy and paste reforms policies. I've got a brilliant...

Literally. I've got a brilliant quote here from the Home Office, which is, of course, the British version of sort of, it's sort of almost like the Prime Minister's office, isn't it? Yeah, I think they're model the Home Affairs Ministry, kind of on the Home Office. Yeah. So it's one of the senior ministries,

and the tweet or X from that is Britain welcomes migrants who contribute to our economy and society, high owners, entrepreneurs and skilled frontline workers like NHS staff will be fast-tracked to settlement, rewarding those who give and not take, right? So this is the Labor Party basically saying, yeah, we only want high earners and entrepreneurs and useful staff like nurses to come into our country

because they're the, they're the, they don't take, they give, right? And he's just going, since when? Like, I mean, yeah, like, anyway, so, so that's, that's what's going on. So the British Labour Party has just, doesn't have a framework to deal with this. They just literally have folded and gone, okay, we're going to just be reform, but we're going to appeal to the people in reform who aren't anti-immigrant, right? Like, it's the sort of most ridiculous thing. We're going to justify immigration, but do it in the,

framework that, oh, yeah, immigrants are takers, not give it. We'll kind of concede the rhetorical ground or quite a lot of it. And then try and please the, like, it's the Kim Beasley approach to being in government, to ruling. Anyway, but it was, it's great, there's somebody on Blue Sky sort of was discussing this particular quote. And this guy on Blue Sky, Beijing Palmer, is his handle. goes, look, it might not have worked with the public, but at least it was the wrong thing

to do morally. So I think that's the right, you know, sort of framework. That's what's going through Keir Stammer's head at the moment. So, look, look, I know that we hate, you know, everything that goes on in Canberra and everything like that. But I kind of... A wise man was called today. But I do, I kind of hope that the Labor Party here won't fall into the same trap

and decide that they're going to message against mass immigration while still justifying it. Well, didn't Labor say they were going to do a giant crackdown after the election and then's not? Well, what they've cracked down on, Dom, as you would know, is international students. Those evil students who come here to learn, they just take all our knowledge and they get, you know, take it away when they leave. those evil international students. But, Charles, they've increased the cap for 2026.

Didn't you see this? In August, a couple months after the election, Labor increased the cap by 25,000 students to 300,000, or just shy of 300,000. I don't think that they tried to not do that and they got blocked in the Senate by the Libs and the Greens. Well, they may well have, but in any case, that's what's happening.

And there's higher visa fees, so they'll make even more money out of them. Just a couple of quick. fact checks before we go Barnaby Joyce is not going to serve a deputy leader at least not now because Hanson says she's never had deputy leaders why would you win your names on the party so that might be

disappointing for Barnaby and he can't take the Senate seat so Warwick Stacey who won the seat resigned a few months later after citing ill health by the way went to our school Charles we're interested to know One Nation Senator Warwick Stacy and now Sean Bell who was a staff or something is the Senator for New South Wales so there's not a spot

there for Barnaby he'll have to join next time around. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm sure once Barnaby becomes leader, he'll work out a way to have a deputy. Well, I mean, there's whatever's more money. He could be a, he could be a shadow minister or something, couldn't he? I don't know.

Something involving a bit more pay. Yes. He should be the minister for farming. Now, that is a much more safe joke, I think, Charles. All right, there you go. Mentus Day in Australian politics. Possibly the next leader of one nation, if Paulian Hansen ever actually gives it up. Yeah.

But the one thing he's done that no one can take away from him, Charles, is the nationals are very cross with Barnaby Joyce right now. Oh, yeah. Oh, well, that's nice. We can sleep well tonight. We're from the Iconiclass Network, and we'll catch you next time. See ya.