The Chaser Report - We'll Always Have Paris (For Now)

Episode Date: November 16, 2025

Charles and Dom discuss the Liberal’s scuttling of net zero while simultaneously keeping their commitment to the Paris agreement which includes net zero. HUH?! They also examine some rumours surrounding Nigel Farage’s imminent invasion of Australian politics and if all the conservative Liberals will just jump ship and join the Nationals.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. Charles, the coalition had a meeting. They got together. Neither of the parties of the coalition seemed to leave the coalition during the course of the meeting. So by the standards of 2025, it was a big successful meeting. And you, I'm told, brace yourselves, do you listen, you have a theory.

about what went on in this big summit. Susan Lee, David Little Proud, and Co. Yes. Okay. So you know how last week the coalition dropped, sorry, the Liberals, not the Coalition, the Liberals dropped net zero. Or no, or was it the Coalition?

No, it was the Liberals. The Liberals dropped. Well, the Nationals already had, so as a result of the Liberals voting to drop it, yes. But it was a completely incoherent dropping because they kept the Paris, Accords, which bind governments into reductions, but head towards net zero, both, and specifically bind the Australian government in 2030 and 2035.

So if they got elected next government, next election, and they said, oh, yeah, well, we believe in the Paris Accord, then they'd be heading towards net zero anyway, even though they claim that they've dropped net zero. So the two things don't make any sense. This is very confusing. Can I just double-check how this has been reported while we get some ads? Yes, sure. Because as you say, that does seem an interesting line to walk.

Yes, I've got the Reuters report here. This is what the world saw about our opposition party. I am. The Liberals are going to dismantle the Labor government's environment and energy policies. So they'll scrap targets on reducing emissions of renewable energy generation. They won't withdraw from Paris. Net zero would be working if you can get them. 2030 and 2035.

Well, they say that net zero is welcome if we can get there with technology with choice and with voluntary markets, and they'll prevent early coal plant closures, lift the ban on nuclei. So they're still sticking with nuclei, interestingly, and new gas and infrastructure, which makes me wonder, Charles. But the policy doesn't make any sense. You've got to understand, it doesn't make any sense, because they're still bound to the 2035 and the 2030 targets.

So they've said that they're not bound. by any targets, except for the targets, the only targets that Australia is currently bound by. Which government was it that committed Australia to the Paris Agreement, by the way? It was the very progressive, left-wing, almost socialist government of Scott Morrison. Scott Morrison, okay. Well, no, actually, I think it was, was it Turnbull originally he signed up for Paris? But it was Scott Morrison who, you know, and I think Susan Lee was was pivotal.

in pushing the... Yes, it was Malcolm Turnbull in 2015. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Malcolm Turnbull, in a sense, he was a deep stealth labour property, wasn't he? In hindsight?

But anyway, but the coalition is still committed to that. Right, because the whole thing is, this is not about the details. This is about the broad brush. It's about the vibes, right? I mean, my real challenge just briefly is the coalition's agreed to just do its thing, to do whatever it wants and not particularly follow it, like just have whatever energy policy feels right. Yeah.

And then if they happen, if it happens to result in net zero, big fat, yay. If not, well, we tried. Yes. Or did we try? It's a bit like the way freedom rained down on Iraq. You know, like when America invaded Iraq and they got a whole lot of freedom. I feel like that's the sort of freedom that's being channeled over the freedom to just do whatever you want on climate and hopefully we'll make it to net zero. Anyway, that is not my theory.

My theory is this. I think that the reason why the Libs suddenly dropped net zero after months and months of not even really being on the radar, is because they have got wind that Nigel Farage is about to mount a proper big push into Australia and funded by, this is my guest, Gina Reinhardt, who was over in Mara Lago giving a speech last week, which we reported on. Well, you know that Mara Lago is where Australian politics gets decided. I mean, that's where Pauline Hansen was. The top Australian leaders, of course, meet at Mara Lago.

rather than Canberra. Yes. It's the Canberra of the Western Hemisphere. And presumably the Farage thing is part of this whole one nation, you know, Paul and Hansen going over there, but also Barnaby Joyce flirting with them. Like there's a whole realignment and reorganisation of the right in Australia based around the idea that actually maybe the way forward

is we all jump on the Nigel Farage train because he's having great success in the UK of just basically wiping out the Tories there and come up with a populist right-wing party, right? And the big push around that will be, let's get rid of net zero, right? And that's why they really focused on net zero. They didn't really care about the Paris Accords

because probably Nigel Farage doesn't really care about some sort of bureaucratic agreement. And Gina Reinhardt, of course, loves all this because she loves, you know, doing things that, you know, that's part, she's part of that milieu, right? Anyway, so this is my theory, right? And I think what happened was the lives went, well, do we want to be on the side, like, do we want to be in the middle of this chit show on the right where the populists are

going, oh, we can't possibly do anything for the environment? Oh, they're just a bunch of lefties, those liberals. And they immediately went, oh, fuck, we've got to get out of the way. And that's why they very quickly tried to drop net zero. so that they came up with a completely incoherent policy that doesn't make any sense because they did it out of urgency. They did it out of,

ah, fuck, Nigel Farage, is about to turn out. And the reason why I say I think this is going to happen is because just last week, there was a change of name registered in the AEC, right? And the very, this was reported in the Herald. Glenn Drury is apparently, you know, The preference whisperer. The preference whisperer.

who admittedly talks to every single person in the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But one of his sort of the parties that he chats to is a party called, I think it's got like the Pets and Companion Animals Party. Oh, doesn't know that? Well, that's a very popular. That's a populist platform. Everyone loves pets and companion animals.

Well, yeah, I mean, who can say, oh, no, let's not have companion animals. I hate those blind people being able to see with those dogs. Like, no one's going to not vote for that, right? So it's a very inoffensive thing, but they've changed their name. And I think their new name is called, the full title is something like End Mass Immigration Reform Australia Party. But remember. Reform Australia.

Yeah. Nigel Farage's party in the UK is called Reform, UK, right? So the idea of Reform A.U., which I think is what it's going to be, like that's the logo. The logo just says reform. I think might be that's the platform he's going to use. So it's not necessarily a One Nation play. It's not necessarily a Liberal Party play. It's like it's going to be a new populist thing.

But it'll probably have, well, it'll have the organizational skills of Nigel Farage. She was clearly very talented in, you know, stoking anti-immigrant sentiment and, well, anti-any anything. Andy's just good of being anti, right? And then at the same time, it will have the funding of Gina Reinhardt, who I am led to believe is quite rich. There's an article just looking for in Reform Australia. Back in July, someone called Michael DePersy, writing in The Spectator, Australia, called for a Reform Australia party.

But Charles, it does go back to first principles. If you want to try and win government in Australia, you wouldn't want to cash in or any of the brand recognition of, you know, one nation with it's 15% of the, the Liberal Party with the digital behind and go for a new reform. Is that what you're saying? No, that's what I'm saying. And I'm saying, no, no, but I think also they probably have talked to Paul and Hansen

because, you know, One Nation is surging the polls. The thing about Australia and one of the blessings that we've had over the past 30 years in Australia, I think you'll agree with this, Dom, is Paulin Hanson. I mean, she really has been a standout in being able to sabotage any incipient sort of right wing push, like she really has, you know, like every time the right just seems to start getting it, you know, One Nation starts getting a bit of momentum, she'll sack her party leader or, you know, go to jail or, you know, like there's so many things. She does fall out with a lot of colleagues. I mean, she and Mark Lathen are no longer together, are they? Yeah, it's exactly. And

so there's a real, like she's kept it small enough that she can be in charge, right? And the whole point about a political party, if you want to, you know, like say, get government or something, is you actually have to be competent enough. I mean, she's even been to jail, I think, for electoral fraud, hasn't she? She was one of the things. That was the Tony Abbott thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, I'm pretty sure Nigel Farage has never been to jail for electoral fraud. Like, you know, you've got to be competent enough to, you know, twist the rules in your favor, you know, and play the game, effectively enough and legally enough that you don't keep getting in trouble. So I think, I suppose what I'm saying is they probably kick the ties on Paul Hansen, they probably kicked the ties on the National Party and Liberal Party and went, no, no, no, we need to come in with something a bit fresh, something, you know, that can be an anti-everything party.

Like, I think, you know, you've got to recognise... Drain the swamp. Yeah, you've got to drain the swamp. You've got to kick them all out. We want to begin everything and everyone, especially mass immigration and, you know, And then a whole lot of dog whistles and things are there. I mean, I haven't told you. I don't think I've even told you, Dom, what it's like being over in the UK at the moment.

I went over there in October. And we saw all these, not just British flags, just put up all around every town that we went to, had all these British flags put up sort of at half-mast. Really? They weren't, they're on light poles, you know, just like you walk down the street. and like every third or fourth, you know, lighting pole or whatever would have... Have a union jack? A union jack halfway up and you're going...

And I said to a term manager, why are all these British flags at half-mast? And it wasn't just British flags, it was also the flag of St George, right? Oh, yes. England, right? The red cross, yes. A bit of brand confusion there between the Red Cross and the British flag, The English flag, but anyway, yeah. Sorry, what was the solution?

Why were they all at half-mast? No, but he said, oh, they're not half-mast. It's just they're really, they're put up by incompetent people who don't know how to put them up. I thought there might be, there might have been English-made flags that just sort of rooted in the heat. But it's basically, it's that sort of, what's it called, March for Australia? You know, how they had a big march for Australia? Oh, no, it wasn't called March for Australia in England. It was the same sort of thing.

Yeah, but this is happening around the world. But by the way, just footnote, the time. people have been naming all the people in the march outside New South Wales Parliament, as we suggested on this show, and there's been a bit of blowback already. We said that, and then they did it. So there you go. I feel like we govern journalism. Very much.

A very influential podcast. The Chaser Report. Less news more often. Now, that's all very interesting. It does seem like a lot of work. And I'm just looking around while you discussed this at what people want to do. do with the conservative side of politics. And there's an interesting idea,

Kell Richards. Do you remember Kell Richards? Yeah, I remember. A beloved ABC broadcaster known for his sort of word, like etymology stuff and all that kind of, you know, a bit of a legend. But also, didn't he host at Open Road for a little while?

But he's done many things. Anyway, these days he's a commentator on Sky News, and he's come up with a, he's now very politically active, and he wants to fix conservative politics. and what he thinks should happen, Cal Richards, is just dump the Liberal Party. All the Conservatives in the Liberal Party should just jump ship to the Nationals.

Right. He just reckons that that's the brand. Forget the rural thing. Every Conservative in Australia should just join the Nationals. Forget Susan Lee, forget and embrace the Little Proud Revolution. And look, I can totally see a, I mean, it would be a very fierce battle, Allegra Spender versus the National Party candidate

for Potts point For Potts Point For double bay For double bay Like I kind of feel like Or you know like What's the equivalent It'd be Turok or something

It would be the national candidate National candidate Yeah that's what Kells's saying Kells saying you need to You know If there's a liberal candidate in the seat Just dump them Run a national

Instead of them Parachute in Barnaby Joyce To Turok It'd be great in Torek He's got name recognition There's just this one thing thing, Charles, that the Reform Party, the Farage Party, whatever it is, even the National Party if it takes over, all one nation, and you've just alluded to it there, Charles, which is that

someone at some point, if they want to win office back from Labor, unless Labor implodes, which we can schedule in some point in the next 10 years based on Labor's history, they've got to win back the seats that used to be the Liberal Heartland. Someone's got to actually win back to a race. I don't know whether that's true, Dom. I don't think that's true. Like, if you look at the electrical map in the UK... Don't need them anymore?

No. Well, maybe, like, that's one way of thinking about it. Another way of thinking about it is, I have a sneaking suspicion that there are a lot of Labor seats that Farage's politics would be very, you know... Oh, the anti-uneration stuff. If you're talking sort of angry people who are fucking sick the stroll out on housing that the Labor Party is doing,

you know, maybe it takes, you know, a bit of effective rhetoric to get people across the line to support a new party. But, oh, look, you know, Naja Farage, he's got effective rhetoric. You know what I meant, the channel's anger about inaction. Isn't that importing overseas rhetoric coming and taking the place of Australian rhetoric? Oh, so we should end mass immigration of rhetoric. Well, it's a very confusing position to be in. Yes, you're right.

But Charles, this is the other thing. We know from news poll that the two-thirds of Australians are sympathetic with that position on immigration recently. But we've already had Australians against further immigration as a party for decades. And that, as it turned out, did very little. So I'm not entirely, what's the difference with the Farageist movement? Is it the raw charisma of Nigel Farage? He knows that the problem with all electoral... politics at the moment run by these centrist parties is that they run away at first sight

from mounting an argument on anything but what they do is they look at the polls they read the polls and then they reflect back to the population what those polls say that that is literally professional politics across the board and i guarantee that's not just labor and liberal that is fucking teals that's fucking the national party that is probably fucking one nation right like that is there is a methodology for making sure the Greens definitely do it like they all do it right and what Farage does is go you know what I could do I could do something that politicians used to do all the time before polling which is just fucking say what I want to say it'll be a bit naughty it'll be a bit politically incorrect it'll be a bit wrong but I will convince people

of my position over time and I will mount an argument and because I'm the only person who's actually authentically saying something that I actually reckon everyone else will sort of scramble to sort of and just be one step behind because it'll be constantly polling but suddenly the polls will also start reflecting whatever I'm fucking saying because I'm the only person actually mounting a positive argument about anything and then what happens is everyone fucking starts marching to your drumbeat so Kirstama

supposedly Labor Prime Minister starts running massive anti-immigrant lines in his laws and his policies around immigration like he starts doing like everyone else starts doing your work for you and so and then people say oh wait a minute that Farage guy is more powerful than anyone else in this society

and then you start getting proper legitimacy Are you sort of admiring the successful Farage Juggernaud in terms of being a conviction politician? I mean, the other person who's done well with that model is Donald Trump. I'm saying it's a trick that we know works. It works for Donald Trump. And just Donald Trump never market tested a single position. Like, we can look at Albaugh and go, wow, he's a fucking genius. Or maybe we can look at Albao and go, oh wow, Australia has been very lucky and it's been in the mediocrity of its right-wing candidates so far.

and the fact that nobody's actually tried to mount a proper populist push into Australia, but it's very worrying. Well, Clive Palmer did. Clive Palmer ran a lot of these policies at the last election and went absolutely nowhere, but yes, doesn't have the skills of Nigel Farage as a retail politician. Barnaby Joyce is a good retail politician. So you think maybe, and he's mates with Jenna Reinhardt, maybe he's the leader of the new movement.

That's why he's been flirting around and saying maybe he'll leave the National Party. There is just one fly in the ointment of this, Charles, which I just want to mention, which is really interesting, which is that I haven't been able to find any commentary on this. Does the coalition intend by dismantling Labor's renewables push to get rid of the three free hours? Because this is the only time in decades, really, that I can recall, the government giving us anything for free. This is the thing whereby from, I think it's middle of next year, power companies. companies will be required to give everybody three free hours of electricity in the middle of the day when renewables surge. And you know that it's a good policy.

You know that it's a good policy because the electricity companies hate it. And also I could say what it was in one sentence and you could understand what it meant. And also it's actually, it's a policy that tangibly gives you a benefit from more renewables. Like it's literally, it's linking proper retail politics. with proper benefits to everyone, not just to fucking power companies. I'm just wondering if our ordinary Australians are going to go, hang on a sec, renewables means I get free power? Yeah, it's a brilliant policy is to put downward pressure on power prices.

That's what they were talking about. They want to try and make power cheaper. Yeah. I just want to know how that squares with the policy that Labor just announced the week before. No, no, hey, Dom, Dom, Dom, Dom, Dom, Dom, you, no, I'm sorry, Dom, come on, please. We've been through this, which is the Libs don't need to be coherent. Like, their policy is not supposed to be coherent. You know, they've said they're dropping net zero.

They're not dropping Paris. Like, it doesn't make any sense. You know, they're against renewables. They still want three, free hours from renewables. That just, if it doesn't make sense, then that's probably the coalition's policy. I just looked up the thing about Paris targets being legally mandated. and you've successfully remembered the entire point of the Paris Agreement was that companies would commit to a legally binding process.

Yes. I really think perhaps you might have mentioned that in the party room. I know. I think that they just forgot. I think they just didn't realize. Do you think that someone said, do we like Paris? And everyone thought, well, it's a beautiful city, city of light. I've been there on my honeymoon.

And forgot the detail. This is my theory, is that all the real. right in the Liberal Party wanted to ditch Paris and Susan Lee as a compromise sent well it's actually just not ditch Paris we can still say that and we'll just ditch net zero right and that was a sort of compromise having not thought about the complete incoherence of that and what she set herself up for is yet another sort of problem which is that in a few months time when it becomes clear that it's a completely incoherent policy they're going to have to also ditch Paris, but it just means a whole new set of terrible drama that will just make the headlines

for days and be really boring for everyone of internal fighting. I mean, it certainly does seem to be a really painfully slow implosion, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, it's wonderful to watch. Like, you know how when movies do a really good pyrotechnic scene? They often just slow it down. I feel like that's what we're watching at the moment. like there's no need to speed it up like just let's let's just every step of the way let's just see I don't want to see it in 30 frames per second I want to see it in like one frame per second

let's just let's just watch it well you can be you can be as partisan as you like Charles of course I as a neutral observer just like seeing the robust health of Australian democracy giving giving voters options Charles giving votes many options which seem to mostly be Labor for the next election at this stage. But hey, we'll see if the Farage Party kicks in. No, no, it's reform. It's reform all the way, baby. Just watch this space.

This is my theory. As you mentioned, like, no one has, this is why I want to get the theory out. I think I'm right, but it's also not out there. So, fuck you, everyone. You heard it here first and possibly last. We'll see. Yes, we're from the Ocona Class Network. You know what you don't want to be more hot takes.