The Chaser Report - Hello 2026!

Episode Date: February 8, 2026

Dom and Charles return to The Chaser Report studio for 2026 with everything under the sun to talk about, from the Epstein files to Pauline Hanson becoming the next PM. Plus some predictions about what would happen to the Coalition, which quickly reminded us why we don't record on a Friday afternoon. Oh also, Charles was right.---Listen 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 Gatigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to another year of The Chaser Report. Back for 2026, a little bit later than planned. I had a lurgy. Charles is busy with international fame and fortune. I was just coughing up stuff. Were you sick?

Yeah. Oh, I assumed that the reason why we couldn't go back next week was because you were dealing with being mentioned in the Epstein files. I thought that was the... Interesting offer for the start of 20206. We'll take some ads and then Charles can justify that. There are so many revelations in the Epstein files. Some of them entirely gross.

Was my name? John Stewart's name was mentioned. Yeah. Oh, no. I mean, I didn't look too hard. I just assumed that was what was going on. Because it coincided. Like, it was literally the day that... We were going to come back the day that the Epstein files were released.

And then you suddenly went, oh, no, no, let's not do that. And I just assumed you were sort of on the phone to the lawyers, redacting things. Redacting things. Yeah, no. PR specialists, crisis PR. Look, all I'll say is that once you get into the web of the British Royal Family, who are a gateway to so many of these things, and people will have seen the moment those things came out, Aussie royalty, Catherine Keating was on the Sydney Morning Herald,

And look, it's just you go, you move to New York, you want to find people who can help your career along. Yes. I mean, there's a, some might say, a reasonable percentage chance some of those people might turn out to be massive creeps, given the way the world works. Powerful men interested in having younger women over for dinner. You know, there's a little pattern there. But, hey, she didn't know what was going on. Apparently, I've read the denials. I believe the denials.

I have never met a member of the British Royal Family as she had. that's how I think she met Jeffrey Epstein was through Prince Andres, he then was. I love how, you know, the Royal Family. They're the gateway. They just, they just introduce you to other interesting people rather than, you know, they're not the most interesting person that you've met. No, they're the gateway to people to actually help you. I think even, yes, you're a British royal, but you're only a British royal.

I think that's the problem. And so, yes, interesting to see the daughter of noted Republican, Paul Keating, hanging out with such people. But nevertheless, you know, I'm sure. all the denials she issued were completely accurate. I have no reason to think otherwise. But no, I wasn't in the Epstein files, I'm afraid. And look, I've got a bit of a Mia Culpher to issue over the Epstein files.

Because many years ago, I think it must have been about 2016, 2017. I did a comedy show. Maybe it was 2018. But I think it was called the Andy Experts Guide to Everything. I remember that concept. That was the sort of early version of Wankanomics. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, it was sort of a different show. Wasn't it, you and James?

It was all about conspiracy theories. Oh, yeah. And the wellness industry and in Q and on and all that sort of stuff. But we had a whole, like half the show was spent mocking Pizza Gate. And in particular, mocking the idea that there was a global cabal of pedophiles who would refer to the kids that they were trafficking as pizzas. Right? We just thought that that was the most hilariously stupid.

Oh yes, this is the person that shot up the Washington, D.C. Pizzeria. Yes. Because they believed the whole QAnon in National Cabal of sex traffickers linked to Hillary Clinton. Yes. To be fair, the surname was not too far off as it turned out. Well, indeed.

Bill Clinton, who was in the Epstein files. But also, more importantly, like, the word pizza is how they, like, in the Epstein files. There's 6,000 mentions of the word. pizza and it's clear that they're actually referring to kids as as pizza. And literally, a lot of the terminology that we were mocking because it was all this ridiculous Hillary Clinton's emails thing seems to be entirely true. Like, the conspiracy theory was completely wrong. Like, it's actually not true that, you know, John Podesta was ordering kids, you know, late night at the White House, you know, for,

Hillary Clinton to use in a satanic sex ritual. But all that terminology was actually used in the Epstein files dating back as far as 2009. But also I, in at least one of my books, possibly more, have written about, yeah, Q and on as well. Yes. This idea that there's a giant vast conspiracy where many of the world's leading figures are actually secret paedophiles. Yes. That turned out to be true. Yes.

Or at least many of them were linked with Jeffrey Epstein. flew to the island. We don't, there are lots of allegations. We don't know how true they all are, but it's definitely true that at least some of the people on the island did that stuff.

We know that for sure. So, no, actually, not at all an unreasonable conspiracy theory. The problem was, Charles, the one thing where it does fall down just a little bit was the concept Q had that the savior,

do you recall who the savior from all this was going to be? Oh, I don't know. I can't remember it. The person who was going to defeat the cabal and expose them all and fix it all. Donald J.

Trump. Donald Trump. It was going to be there. Yes, it was the head of the Kennedy Centre, Donald Trump. Yes, the Trump Kennedy Centre, that's another thing that's happened over the break. The man who famously, and I know about this as well, went into the dressing rooms of the beauty pageants that he used to run. Anyway, a man who very clearly in a documented fashion had this creepy line about how Jeffrey Epstein loved beautiful women as much as he did and some of them are on the young side. But it does make you think that probably what was going on with the whole Pizagate thing was,

It was sort of like active misinformation. It was literally going, well, we know we're completely guilty of sin over here. So let's discredit conspiracy theorists by also drumming up a conspiracy theory over here about Hillary Clinton. You've got a conspiracy theory about the conspiracy theory. Oh, my goodness, 3.26. But the thing is, all the conspiracy theories are turning it to be true. So, like, the rational thing to do is to now believe the conspiracy theorists. Well, I mean, the reptilian one has always had a certain something.

Well, I kind of feel like that has got to be true now. I mean, how do you just make that up from out of nowhere? No, exactly. There must be some scary, like some basis, some essence of truth. And I think, if I recall correctly, that one emerged when a Premier League footballer, I think he's known as David Ike, just a switch went off in his brain in the middle of some sort of television interview. He was just sort of a regular media personality before that point. just the switch flicked and he started talking about reptilians.

I mean, who knows what they did to him with their mind lasers, Charles? It could have been anything. You think maybe the, you know, the Marjorie Taylor Green conspiracy theory that Another big bit of news, there was space lasers. That she broke with Donald Trump. Yeah. Was she done with the space lasers? Yeah, I think she might have been.

Yeah, that there was space lasers. Anyway, look, Dom, like, this is our first episode back. let's not go down the rabbit holes too soon. We should do, you know, what we are known for and what we are respected for. Are we known or respected for everything? And what, you know, the audience expects of us, which is to talk about Australian politics. I think, I think this is all very good and we can get into. We can talk about how, you know, wrong and right the Epstein files were.

But, you know, frankly, you know, before we do that, let's actually, just, you know. I mean, to link it back before we go to some ads as a little segue I don't think Catherine Keating has a lock on the prime ministership, just quietly. Yeah. At least any time soon. All right. We'll get on to that in a sec.

The Chaser Report. News you can't trust. Okay, let's go back to Australian policy. A lot's happened over summer. A lot's happened. But I want to focus our attention just on the major parties. Right. I don't want to be talking about

like the Liberal Party of the National Party. I think we should only talk about, you know, the two major parties in Australia, the Labor Party and, of course, One Nation Party. One Nation which has 26% in recent polls. Yes, and the preferred Prime Minister polling has Pauline Hanson at the most preferred Prime Minister. Really? Congratulations, Pauline Hanson. She's the PM in waiting. She's the PM in waiting.

Despite being in the Senate. I don't know how she's going to get past that one. No, no, but that's happened before. John Gordon. So 26% primary. and the Lib Nats, 19. Yeah, between them. And 34% of Australians are still like, yep, Labor's all over this.

So 5644 Labor two-party preferred. But does that even mean anything anymore? This is from Sky News here. They're counting that guy across Samaras, the Labor pollsters saying, look, if it's a one-nation labour, maybe it goes the other way. We don't even know what the two-party preferred is with the new duality of political power. Well, Anthony Green did an extremely. extremely good breakdown of that on his new website that is now running.

I didn't know. Oh, that's so exciting. He's still doing it. I think it's called, I can't remember the name. I think it's called antonygreen.com. I think that would make sense. You know, like, it's so hard to remember what Anthony Green's website's called. It's something like that.

Maybe it's Brian Green or something. Anthony Green. It's Anthony Green. Anthony Green. Antonygreen. Okay. So. Oh my gosh.

You're right. One Nation's poll surge. the first 25 seats to watch. Yes. So what he's done is he's gone back and looked at where One Nation came third in the primary votes. Or in the top three at least. In the top three, sorry, in the top three of primary votes.

And they're the ones to watch because the point is that as long as one nation can get ahead of the Liberal and National Party or Liberal or National Party on a two-party preferred basis, i.e. B in the top two, then presumably the preferences will flow from the libs and the Nats to one nation. And, you know, yeah, you could literally see dozens, if not 25 seats flipping to one nation at the next election, which is sort of extraordinary. And is a long way of, and sort of preamble really, for me to talk about how absolutely correct I at the end of last year. So for long-term fans of the podcast,

this is the most on-brand thing that we do, is Charles picking some of the predictions which he makes from previous episodes. Happy to put a clip in here, if we like. And being vindicated. The genius of this approach for Charles, which is certainly a regular in the pod, is that the many things that you predict that don't come to pass,

just disappear to the memory hole and we'd open those clips back out of the archive. But no, this is true. You had this theory. only that, you had a particular moment when it was all supposed to have gone down. And I actually think that that moment, thanks to me, will be written up in history as a very pivotal moment, which is towards the end of last year, Pauline Hanson went over to Marilago and also there at the same time was Barnaby Joyce, Gina Reinhart, Nigel Farage. Oh, yes. Oh, that's right. This is

all your theory that's going to be Reform Australia. Yeah. And look, yeah, The thing that I got wrong was I said maybe it's not going to be called One Nation. Maybe actually what will happen is they'll form a new far-right party in Australia, and they'll call it Reform Australia. And there was actually, like that party name has actually been registered. But everything else actually sort of seems to be transpiring. And I'm going to tell you my theory about why the surge is so rapid, right? And you can point to the Bondi shooting as one of the reasons.

There has been an uplift in xenophobia and also just anti-immigration sentiment over the summer. But also, one of my sons has been browsing TikTok. And one of the streams of content that he now gets served on a very regular basis, and my son is a very progressively minded, wonderful human being, but he gets served one nation videos and one nation adjacent videos, right? All the time, right? And the thing about them is they're fucking funny. They are fucking good content.

Because they've just released a feature film, didn't they? Over the break. So they're, yeah, so the- They and Melania, I can't believe they're not screening the two things together. The cartoons are quite good and actually, you know, actually follow structured comedy beats and things like that. But what they've been doing is they've been using AI, better than any other political force out there.

And I think partly because they don't need to sort of adhere to things like truth. And it doesn't matter if they're caught using AI to doctor an anti, you know, an Anthony Alvonezzi video or something like that. What they do is they make all these public figures in the AI say terrible things. Like it'll be like Anthony Alvinisi talking about the social media ban going, I ban social media because I'm a poop. you know, I want the worst for Australia, you know, and stuff like that. And they're sort of weird and, they're obviously pitched at young, you know, supple minds, right.

Or older minds that are receptive to, I'm a poop. Yeah, I'm a poop. Let's not be age discriminatory here. But of all the major political parties, I would say one nation's social media game is just so much more sophisticated. than it was even 18 months ago. That's what I want to know why. What I would say is I think that what's going on, and we've seen the revelations just last week,

that Clive Palmer, in the Epstein files, Clive Palmer did get a call from Steve Bannon. He talked to Steve Bannon. He, you know, like the allegation in the Epstein files is that, you know, Bannon basically claimed credit for getting Clive Palmer to spend $60 million, $60 million running sort of anti-China propaganda.

in the lead up to the 2019 election. Now, Clive Palmer hasn't, you know, confirmed that, but what he has confirmed is that he did, you know, those conversations did take place. Yeah, I know a journal is following up on the banner end of that as well, so we'll hear what he has to say. But there's definitely some sophistication, isn't there, if they're doing this AI content.

Yeah, but instead of it just being sort of Clive Palmer throwing shit at the wall, I think that this is the Nigel Farage end of the social media and the strategy, which is a lot more sophisticated. It's not focusing, well, at least for the stuff that my son's being served, it's not going straight to like hard-nosed policies that make you hate foreigners or whatever. It's going to these more sort of just anti-establishment things where, you know, their videos showing how stupid Albo is, how stupid Susan Lee is, how stupid all the major parties are.

and just in the background is, oh, and One Nation is, you know, they don't even mention One Nation. It's just, you know, like, that becomes the solution. Well, there is a bit of an interesting thing here also about the role of the satire. And I think it's fair to say The Chaser as well. I mean, the One Nation movie is called a super progressive movie. Yes. And that is a frighteningly good title. Making fun of progressiveness and the sort of consensus, the stuff that people on the right call wokeness.

And let's just say it's a reasonably target-rich environment. Yes. And I don't know that the Aussie satire is really doing its thing. Just as when you watch all the late-night hosts over in America, there's not much of that. And let's just say, I think you could do more. The ground has been left to One Nation, which is bizarre. Yes. You've got a political party doing memes and doing comedy and doing parody.

Yes, that's actually taking off on TikTok. When I've watched it, I haven't been like. And like, goodness me, I wish I'd written that joke. But they're the only ones in the space. But also, you go, yeah, that's actually a legitimately well-structured joke. Like, that's what I'm impressed by is. Like, yeah, you're right. I wouldn't have written that joke.

But, like, I wouldn't have yelled at the writer who did write that joke. But the other thing is, I mean, yes, and some of the content might be bit beyond the pale. You know, that's fine. I'm not defending all the content. I'm just saying, have the people who are in power, labor and presumably labor, for at least several terms to come. Yes. They need to be made fun of, right?

That's not happening very much. You're not seeing people making fun of Albo much in the space. And goodness knows there's plenty to be getting on with. Now, so I do have a solution to this problem. Oh, thank goodness. Which is, I think we should actually run with this whole anti-foreigner momentum that's been built up. Oh. And what we should be arguing is that foreigners should no longer be involved in foreign.

the messages of our political parties. So we should get rid of the foreigners. And ironically, the people who will be most affected by that is one nation. Because clearly all their proper messaging is coming from overseas. They're importing foreigners. They've been importing Nigel Farage and Steve Bannon and all these foreigners. An American American. We want the foreigners out of our political system.

Do you see what I mean? Remember when Barnaby Joyce was briefly a foreigner? It wasn't he a Kiwi and he had to go back and, yeah, look. look, it's, it is a strange phenomenon. And I just want to know, are they going to get beyond Pauline Hanson? Like, what's the, what's the strategy there? Because how do, who are the other people going to come in? Because they tend to.

But Barnaby Joyce, Corey Bernardi's going to run. Like, one nation is a momentum game at the moment. And what I would say is, Dom, I think, you know how we have talked for years about how slow-footed Alba has been on housing, right? Like, that it really is his Achilles Hill. And it's big, and it's for very good. good reason, which is, you know, the entire federal cabinet is doing very well out of the current property market. I mean, you say slow-footed. I've recalled that the transaction on the

central coast was, that was pulled off very well. Yeah, that was actually swift, yeah. The retirement home was, I think that was. They had a swift settlement. I don't, I don't know the exact details, but he said to be very nimble. Yeah. With the, uh, the latest in the property portfolio. Yeah. So, but the point being that, you know, that's, you know, like if you, I mean, even just on the radio this morning, they were interviewing people over in Western Australia about the recent surge in One Nation over there. And it was

like literally every Vox Pop came back to, oh well nobody can afford housing in this country. I mean there was this one guy on the radio who went, look I completely support immigration, but I think it's now just too crowded, you know, like and it's that sort of, and to be clear,

like, like that is not the cause of our housing crisis. The cause of our housing crisis is other things. But One Nation is very, very clearly making that their story. But housing is linked to immigration. You can't buy this house because someone from overseas is coming. But while, well, you know, you know, like they, Albo can enjoy the capital gains on his investment properties and so can the rest of the cabinet. But while that happens, One Nation is just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And it will be beyond Paul and Hanson, no doubt.

Like it already is. It's Barnaby Joyce. It's Corey Bernardi. Well, the interesting thing will be, Charles. And let's just put this as a line in the sand before we finish up. Will they start having credible and in many cases well-known candidates for the lower house? Because Barnaby Joyce is very clear. He's running for the Senate.

He came from the Lower House. He's a member for New England now. But his plan is to run in the Senate for One Nation. at the point where people like Joyce or Bernati or whoever, it might be Benani, of course, former senator, once they start running for lower house seats and they think they can genuinely win those ones, that's when you'll start seeing,

well, is this actually a chance of being an alternative government? I think we're always off that now. Yes. But let's see who they get for those lower house seats. Well, Pauline Hansen has raised the possibility of going into coalition with the coalition. Yeah, she's sort of gone backwards and forwards on that. She certainly, she wants to work with them against Labor,

but she doesn't want to have formal coalition. No, no, no, no, but she said... Does she even need them? She would govern with them. Like, she would have to govern with them. But isn't the whole point about, you know, those people is, you know, they would prefer to govern with one nation than with the Labor Party, than be stuck with Labor.

Like, you know, if they didn't believe that, they would end up being teal. Well, the other irony is that I suspect it, this point, both the nationals and the Liberals would rather govern with one nation than with the other. Yes. The traditional coalition partner. So we'll see what happens there. There's so much toxicity in that relationship.

Yes. At the time, look, at the time of recording, that that's not been resolved yet. But, yeah, it's hard to see. If Susan Lee and David Little Proud both keep their jobs, as seems likely, how do you get that couple back together again? And look, I have no expertise at all. and I know nothing about David Littleproud, right? But I'm just going to say this as a thing of opinion rather than fact.

This is just my personal opinion. Are you dropping a little thing to bring back later as a prediction? No, no, which is that I always thought David Little Proud was by far the best performer besides Barnaby Joyce in the National Party, right? Like I always thought, wow, this guy's clever. If he ever got into power, he could be really quite sophisticated and, you know, a real credible threat to the left side of politics. But my, my sense is that he's one of those people who is very aware of how clever he is.

And that's actually his Achilles Hill. That actually he's probably, frankly, just a bit of a cock. I think that that's what's going on. Do you think, do you think he records a little internal, you know, podcast-esque memos for other national MPs playing clips where he was right from last year? Or is he not quite that much of a cock? I can see what you're saying there, Don. And it doesn't change how happy you are. And that's why we love you, Charles.

Happy 2026. Yeah, yeah, lovely to be back, yes. And look, Dom, we should probably talk about how the podcast is going to work this year. I think realistically, it's probably going to be less than daily for chunks of this year. Well, you've got a lot of touring to do. So we'll see how we go. Yeah. But we will be doing weekly VIP.

episodes, weekend edition episodes for subscribers. So that will start next Saturday. So lovely to be back and we'll speak to you soon. We are part of the Iconiclass Network. Catch you tomorrow.