The Two Jacks - Episode 172 - Hanson Doubles Down, Burgess Sounds the Alarm, and the Populist Playbook Goes Global

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EPISODE SUMMARY

It is Hong Kong Jack's birthday, and the Two Jacks mark the occasion with a long, wide-ranging episode recorded on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The show opens with Pauline Hanson's refusal to remove a cartoon from her website branding Liberal MP Andrew Hastie a traitor — eight times over. Barnaby Joyce has apologised, One Nation candidates are expressing discomfort, but Hanson will not budge. Jack the Insider argues her truculence is a delusion shared by populists everywhere: the belief that backing down is weakness. Ironically, the affair has burnished Hastie's credentials as a potential Coalition leader. From there, the hosts turn to the Prime Minister's handling of the Marrickville Golf Club membership controversy — a one-day story turned into a one-week saga by Albanese taking umbrage rather than simply admitting an oversight.

The conversation broadens into the global rise of populism: revelations about a One Nation candidate in Victoria; ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess's expression of deep regret over the October 9 Opera House rally and his warning that normalised behaviours raised the temperature and increased the permission for politically motivated violence; and Germany's state elections, where the AFD's surge in Saxony comes despite the state having one of the lowest foreign-born populations in the country. Chancellor Merz, with 75 per cent disapproval, may be finished. A proposed Constitutional Court ban on the AFD is, in Hong Kong Jack's view, just about the worst thing Germany could do.

Across the Atlantic, the Lindsay Clancy mistrial in Massachusetts — a jury split 11-1 for acquittal after 40 hours, with postpartum depression at the centre of the defence — prompts a wider discussion of the US justice system. Donald Trump's midterm rally speech earns scrutiny too: the pledge of five thousand dollars for every adult male, his claim to have outrated the NFL (2.5 million viewers against 28.3 million), and his falling asleep during the reading of the names at the 9/11 commemoration. The hosts close that section with reflections from John Howard and Kevin Rudd on where they were 25 years ago.

Finally, the footy: an NFL crowd of 100,000 at the MCG to watch the 49ers beat the Rams; Russell Jackson's ABC story on racism allegations at Hawthorn and North Melbourne, which the Jacks find lacking in evidence; Cricket Australia's BBL privatisation push; and finals predictions for the AFL and NRL. The birthday show signs off, fittingly, with the arrest of a Nigerian prince in California.

TIMESTAMPS

All times include the 25-second theme music.

• 00:00:27 — Welcome; happy birthday Hong Kong Jack
• 00:01:19 — Pauline Hanson refuses to remove Andrew Hastie "traitor" cartoon
• 00:05:30 — The PM and the Marrickville Golf Club: a one-day story becomes a one-week saga
• 00:07:03 — Populists and the delusion that they can do no wrong
• 00:08:08 — One Nation's Victorian candidate: drugs and sexual deviance allegations
• 00:18:17 — ASIO's Mike Burgess on the October 9 rally and politically motivated violence
• 00:40:13 — Germany's state elections: the AFD's surge in Saxony
• 00:48:15 — The AFD, remigration rhetoric and anti-Semitism
• 00:57:44 — Chancellor Merz at 75 per cent disapproval; the proposed AFD ban
• 00:59:34 — The Lindsay Clancy mistrial in Massachusetts
• 01:10:03 — Trump's midterm speech: five grand for every adult male and the ratings claim
• 01:11:38 — 9/11 at 25: Trump asleep at the commemoration; Howard and Rudd remember
• 01:25:42 — NFL at the MCG: the 49ers down the Rams before 100,000
• 01:28:33 — Russell Jackson, the ABC and the Hawthorn–North Melbourne racism allegations
• 01:38:01 — Cricket Australia and BBL privatisation
• 01:39:42 — AFL finals: Freo, the Swans, the Hawks and the Lions
• 01:41:27 — NRL finals: Panthers, Warriors, Sharks and Cowboys
• 01:42:43 — A Nigerian prince finally caught — in California