The Chaser Report - The Killing Season (NSW & Victoria edition)

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Charles is joined by special fill in host Dylan Behan (from the podcast News Fighters) as they look back on a tumultuous knifing season for state opposition party leaders as they bid farewell to Mark Speakman, Brad Battin and Dugald Saunders (?!?). They also discuss the miraculous survivor no one expected: Sussan Ley!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, but not with Dom today. Where's Dom? Well, Dom, I don't know, he's in India and you know how, I don't know, because half his family's Indian, right? Yes. As far as I can work out, when you go to a family,

gathering in India, like, it's minimum 10 people. Like, that's just like a type. That's like their version of a nuclear family is, like, so he's gone to lunch in some shopping mall, but with 10 of his family members. So it's just sounds like a real, it sounds like Christmas every day in India. Sounds crazy. Even though they're not even Christian. Well, I'm Dylan Bain and I'm happy to be subbing in for Dom.

Yeah, hello, Dylan, yes. And actually, Dylan, the other. little secret that I don't think we've talked about is Lockland is normally our producer on this podcast but he's over in the US. Do we know whether he's still alive? He is. I saw an Instagram story of him today in Times Square, which reminded me of some of your exploits in Times Square for the war and everything, Charles. He's causing trouble there as well. Oh, fantastic. So he'll almost certainly be back sooner than expected having been deported by ICE, I presume. Yeah, unless Ice gets him at the airport on the way out. But I don't think he was hassling. What was the thing you did in Times Square? You dressed up

and went to the Army recruitment office during the Second Gulf War in the 2000s. Was that how I remember it? I did lots of things in Times Square. But yeah, my favorite one, which I'm not sure. I don't even know whether it ever went to air. But it was a great piece. It was after Guantanamo Bay. and, no, no, not going on town of her, but Abu Ghraib, remember the scandal in Iraq where they got the prisoners and tortured them in various humiliating ways? Yes, with electric wires and dress them up as gimps and stuff, was that the one? Yeah, and so I went to Times Square. I dressed up as a gimp in Times Square and I went to the Army recruitment office there

and I rang their doorbell and knocked on their door and said, look, I'm here to, you know, be dominated by you because I've heard you're very good of that stuff and then eventually this military guy came out he was playing clothes but he was clearly from the military and put me

in the most excruciating arm lock but the whole point was that I was supposed to like so I had the remaining character going oh yeah this is great oh I love it do it harder please so that was It was character acting

It was method acting I'll put it up on the Chaser YouTube channel I've been manning to put We want to get the Chaser YouTube channel Up and working Because I hear YouTube's all the rage nowadays

With the young people Isn't it Dylan Indeed indeed You know what else is all the rage With the young people Knifing the opposition leaders Because it's the killing season How's that for a segue?

We've buried the lead Dylan, which is that it's not just on, but like people, I mean, this is, this is going to dominate everyone's weekend, isn't it? Yes. Because the idea that Marks Speakman will no longer be the New South Wales opposition leader. Yes. He's just devastating. I love what he said.

He said, he basically stepped down and let Kelly Sloan take over, and he said that sentiment has changed. I mean, what's sentiment exactly? The sentiment that nobody knows who you are or cares. That sentiment's changed. The one thing that didn't change was that anyone knew that Mark Speakman was the opposition leader. I mean, I don't think I ever saw him speak. I don't think I ever saw a soundbite.

Like, I'm sure I did, but it just never penetrated into my brain. But it's not just Mark Speakman because what's his name, Brittle, Bitten, Bighton? What was the name of the Victorian opposition leader? He's gone as well, isn't he? So Brad Batten, this is a pub trivia question. Nobody will get right next week. Yes, Brad Batten, who replaced John Pizzuto, who replaced Matthew Guy, who replaced Matthew O'Brien.

What a line of completely forgettable middle-aged white men. The Victorian liberals have put up as leaders lately. No, they've gone for generational change with Jess Wilson, who for a second I thought sailed solo around the world, but no, I think that's Jess Watson. Yes, no, yes. So, Jess Wilson, do we know anything about Jess Wilson? Does anyone know anything about Jess Wilson?

Well, she was born in 1990, so I think maybe what the Liberals have tried to do here in Victoria is what they did in New Zealand, Labor did with Jacintra Dern, and that is, it's a year out from an election. Let's just put in a young, clean skin that people can't

attack, because nobody knows anything about her. Yes. I love that. She's been in office only since 2022. And on the ABC website, it says Ms. Wilson, says the party will focus on cutting down on spending. Yeah, it's a big focus on debt because Victoria has a lot of debt after COVID. So is that what the people of Victoria want? I thought they were focused on, you know, better public transport and less level crossings rather than having less debt, I don't think, is top of their agenda at the moment.

Like, maybe that helps, I don't know, the banks or something? Who does that help cutting down on spending? Isn't that the thing that you do secretly? You know, like Howard never went to an election going, you know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to cut all your things. Like, you've got to have the appearance that you're this generous politician who's going to make everyone better of.

You can't go into an election. Why do people, why are people so stupid to go, oh, I'm going to go into an election, and I'm going to promise to cut all the service? that you like. What a fucking morrow? Like, oh my God.

I mean, David Cameron's legacy is just sublime for that reason, right? Yeah. Yeah, I know. Exactly. Like, well,

but they do it so often. I mean, no, no, but I got a theory about British leaders, which is that they actually,

part of the reason why the British economy is so on the nose is because they actually kind of have a sort of slight kink for austerity. They actually, far more than in any other society, apparently austerity, the idea of cutting things in the UK, like everyone loves that idea because everyone thinks, oh, well, it won't be me, it'll be somebody else whose services get cut.

I'm not a bludger. But I don't think in Australia that, I don't think people go to an election and go, oh you know what I want I want this politician to cut things especially at a state level like you might go oh yeah debt's bad but you go and that's concern number eight on my list well is she channeling Jeff Kennett

because it wasn't this Jeff Kennett's policy back in the day he shut all these schools and stuff and he got the knife and he was notoriously hated and then voted out after one term but he still won one election though I mean same with Campbell Newman Campbell Newman in the Queen

Queensland had a huge thumping majority and then got voted out after one term because he cut everything. Like, why it's, like, I'm not even sort of mad at them from an ideological perspective, but I'm just mad at a sort of, you're just an idiot. Like, just, like, you can still cut things and be a horrible person, but just do it secretly. Don't make that the thing that you tell the ABC you're going to do on the day that you're elected. Right, so they need, they need to bury, she needs to bury the lead. I mean, but. Barry the lead, yes.

Maybe if she was like, I'm not going to cut anything, everyone who just called bullshit. Yeah. Maybe that's Australia. She's trying to be young and honest. Okay. I don't know. Do you think that'll work? Well, again, she's a politician.

When did she think honesty was going to get her anywhere? Look, what's going? It's like, ah, yeah. But look, we're also avoiding, I think, what for most listeners around the world, because we do have a global audience now. That's true. This is very niche for two states in Australia. I thought there were three opposition leaders. Oh, no, there was the New South Wales national leader who went. New South Wales Nationals.

Yeah, the New South Wales Nationals change leader. The new guy is a guy named Germish Singh. So this is great for the Sikh communities. He's from Kosovo. But I can't for the life of me remember who the bloody previous New South Wales national leader was. Well, you can't remember it because you never knew it. Exactly. Yeah.

Exactly. I'm not up with it. I'm not up with the... Was it Benjamin Franklin? I don't know. Let me just have a look here to see who the... I reckon that is. Saunders.

Oh, good old Saunders. Ah, good old saunders, yes. Was it, uh, was it Ben Saunders? Dugald Saunders. Wow, he's... Who? Dugald. Dugald Saunders.

Here's the tip of, again, a trivia question. No one will get right ever. I mean, I don't think even that counts as a trivia question. I think if you got asked that in a trivia competition, it'd be like, nah, that's not, there's not public information. Yes. Dugal Saunders. Do you reckon that's the first opposition leader in Australia's history

or leader of a party in Australia's history with the name Dugale? I think so. But news.com.com.com has this scoop right here. They're saying he quit less than three years into his job after his 19-year-old daughter featured in a documentary on the Adder adult industry. Saunders shocked colleagues by resigning suddenly saying he wanted to focus on family. Yeah, you focus on your family.

That means that you're about to get a job with the bank. Remember, it was Mike Baird, who I think was Premier of New South Wales for a little while. And then he resigned and he said, I want to focus on my family. And then a week later said, oh, I'm now going to the NAB. So, like, did you focus on your family for a week and then realize they hated you? Realise the family need a lot of money to maintain the lifestyle that they got as a premier or a backbencher. Just decided you didn't really like them. Exactly.

The Chaser Report. More news. Less often. But the amazing thing about the killing season is, I'm going to call it. I think Susan Lee survived this year. I thought she'd be out by now. I thought she wouldn't make the end of the year. And can I say, I predicted this.

Really? Like a couple of weeks ago, you know, everyone was saying Susan Lee is on the nose. Andrea Hastie's about to be the leader. And I said to Dom, and at the time I sort of kind of regretted it afterwards because I thought, no, actually she probably is gone. But the whole idea,

especially because I think there's more at stake at a federal level the rule is you wait until six months before the election you do not like if you like the next year is just a whole lot of hard work let the woman do it and fail and then and then no and then roll her at the end and you know do the honeymoon thing but it'll be I'm not even sure look I know everyone's saying it's going to be Andrew Hastie and you know There's an argument to say that even if Andrew Hasty just wins back a few seats, then, you know, like he'll be seen as this amazing hero. But I'm not sure it will be Andrew Hasty.

I think that if Andrew Hasty is as clever as everyone says he is, then he will realize that it's a poison chalice. And you don't go to the next election, wait until after the next election. and I reckon Andrew Hasty will sort of be, you know, seeming like he's competitive, but then at the last minute, it'll turn out to be Angus Taylor. Because Angus Taylor is

an idiot. Like he is a genuine idiot, right? Yeah. And he will take the leadership and think it's a really good idea to do that and it'll do a disastrous job. And then I think Andrew Hasty will get in. That's my prediction. Because internally, the

liberals and the nationals are saying, with the number of seats Labor won in 2025, they really aren't going to win in 2028. Oh, definitely, no. Yeah. No, I was talking to a Labor strategist, literally just yesterday, and the guy was saying that actually it's sort of almost mathematically impossible the Liberal Party to win.

Well, in terms of the swing, they need like a 50% swing or something. It's sort of like you'd have to sort of break a few laws of Newtonian physics to actually get across the line. Right. But never say never, you know. Well, maybe, maybe the long game is we're setting up Jess Wilson to become the liberal, the federal liberal leader in 2031. Is that when it'll be?

Oh my God. Yeah, you're right. I mean, maybe the argument is Andrew Hasty gets in six months before the election. He does an all right job, gets back 10 seats or something like that. But I can't see how, like, how is he going to get back to him seats? Because the seats that have gone are all the teal seats. That's it. They're embracing getting rid of net zero with a blokey bloke.

How's that going to go? It's funny, because I went to this function last night, and someone from Shannon's, which is one of those political consultancy sort of advertising companies that worked with the ALP at the last election. And one of the things that the panellists were saying on it was that the Libs all the way through the last election was saying things like we're focusing our ground game based on how people voted in the voice referendum right that's right yes and and there were these quite academic researchers who are on the panel who were going they just made no sense to us and it was sort of like did we like were we missing something we're not seeing something in any of our research

and it would turn out no they weren't It was just this false theory that because people voted known in the voice referendum, that they also hated renewables, loved nuclear power in 30 years time, and loved a culture war, you know, whether it was trans. What was the cultural war last time? Was it trans? That was the election before. What was the one they tried to spin up last time?

Dutton. Work from home? No. Oh, that was a disaster. Oh, no. Cheaper petrol was the other one. Oh, Petch, yes, yes. No, I think Skomo was trying to push the trans issue

and the Australian people just went, no. And then no, yeah, the last election was work from home and Dutton driving around in his truck. Yeah. It feels like years ago and it was six months ago. Yes, it was this year. And yet, the Libs are polling now worse than they were back then. Which is better.

It's odd because Susan Lee, at least she had a decent, favorability rating. Yeah. But I guess people just don't like their policies. Yeah. Well, actually, this is what they were saying last night, is that they seem to be going down the same hole that they went down with this sort of voice referendum analysis around seats, right, which is they've convinced themselves that because a third of the voters

don't really care about net zero, then somehow that represents a path back to. electoral majority, not realizing that it actually means that two-thirds, and I think the media are doing a huge disservice to the Liberal Party, because they keep reporting things like one-third of Australians hate net zero, right? And you're going, but that's not even true. It's not a majority. It's like 18%. Yeah. Like if you said two-thirds of people support net zero. If you're the Liberal Party, you go, well, maybe we need some of the... those voters just mathematically to get into power. Because what they've sort of, I think they've forgotten that not only did they have to go

against the Labor Party, which is in favour of net zero, but also they've got to go against the teals who are ex-libs who are also in favour of net zero. Like it doesn't... Yes, and the Greens as well, a lot of liberal preferences. And the Greens, yeah. Yes. So they've kind of gone, okay, a minority of people support this, a minority of people support us.

Maybe, maybe this is a winning formula. I think, look, I think, to be honest, they're looking around the world and they're going, well, it worked for Boris Johnson, it worked for Trump. It's working for Nigel Farage. All we need is populism. And it works, not realizing that the key missing component with a populist campaign is you need a fucking populist leader.

Yes. So you need someone who's not any of the, front bench of the Liberal Party. Plus, the other thing is they can't embrace the anti-immigrant policies of Trump and Farage because John Howard already did that 30 years ago. We already have these anti-immigrant policies.

They're stealing our policies. We settled this ages ago. So, yeah, what are they going to do? Anyway. Look, I think we've fueled everyone up. Well, certainly for the next week's worth of trivia nights. But I think also, like I don't know about you,

Dylan, but this weekend. I mean, I'm not even going to bother watching the cricket. I'm just going to be thinking about all the opposition leader spills that have been happening. Yes, let's pour out a drink for the Insiders opening montage editor who has to try and scramble all this into 90 seconds. But the problem is you can't do it because you've got to explain who they are before then explaining that they're now gone. Okay. Dugold Saunders is gone. never mind too hard to explain i hope i hope this didn't trigger anyone listening like i hope i'm

pronouncing his name right yeah but i don't want people like crying you know because they've just heard that dougal thunders is gone like just it's all right it's all right things will get better it'll be right they will recover yeah they will recover even without dougal okay well It was wonderful. I'm so glad that Dom had to go to his silly lunch. Absolute pleasure. I was kind of hoping this would happen at least once during my production, my producing duties here on the pod,

and we'll have a lock on back next week. I've been enjoying your edits. I feel like our voices are somehow richer than with Lockwood's edits. Putting the Barry White filter on there just to make you sound a bit... I was going to ask. Yes, that's what it is, isn't it? Make you sound a bit deeper and more authority. Yes. Oh, I like that.

Yes. I like it a lot. We're part of the O'Connor's Class Network. We'll catch you next week. See ya.