Pauline Hanson's Please Explain is an Australian animated conservative political satire web series that is produced by Stepmates Studios, a Melbourne-based production company, for Pauline Hanson's One Nation, a right-wing populist political party in Australia founded and led by Pauline Hanson.
Seasons 1 and 2 are set at Parliament House in Canberra, following Hanson (voiced by herself) teaching a class of Australian politicians (voiced by Mark Nicholson), and parodies current political events while promoting the One Nation party and its policies. The setting in season 3 varies depending on the episode. Episodes are released on One Nation's YouTube channel every Friday and re-broadcast on Sky News Australia.
Viewers have raised money for the series through donations and by purchases from One Nation's online store, most notably One Nation-branded alcohol (namely gin, rum and vodka).
The series has been subject to numerous controversies due to its content.
In 2025, at CPAC Australia, Pauline Hanson announced that a feature film of the series would premiere on Australia Day 2026.
Episodes
Season 1 (2021–22) # Title Release date 1 "School's in Session" 12 November 2021 2 "Preferences" 12 November 2021 3 "Political Donations" 19 November 2021 4 "Excise Taxes" 26 November 2021 5 "Climate Change Policy" 3 December 2021 6 "Political Dishonesty" 10 December 2021 7 "Political Self-Destruction" 17 December 2021 8 "Political Correctness" 24 December 2021 9 "Immigration" 14 January 2022 10 "The Prime Minister's Pension" 21 January 2022 11 "Australia Day" 26 January 2022 12 "Pork Barrelling" 28 January 2022 13 "Housing Affordability" 3 February 2022 14 "How to Pass the Buck" 10 February 2022 15 "The ABC" 17 February 2022 16 "A Labor Greens Government" 24 February 2022 17 "Party Policies" 3 March 2022 18 "The Canberra Swamp" 10 March 2022 19 "Disaster Management" 17 March 2022 20 "Presidential Politics" 24 March 2022 21 "Inflation" 7 April 2022 22 "The Campaign Easter Special" 14 April 2022 23 "The Media" 21 April 2022 24 "Voter Fraud" 28 April 2022 25 "Keyboard Warriors" 5 May 2022 26 "Political Ads" 12 May 2022 27 "Battle of the Ballots" 19 May 2022 28 "The Aftermath" 17 June 2022
Season 2 (2023) # Title Release date 1 "A New Term" 2 February 2023 2 "Economy in the Toilet" 9 February 2023 3 "The Voice" 16 February 2023 4 "The Zero-Sum Game" 23 February 2023 5 "Playing the Victim" 2 March 2023 6 "Under the Bus" 9 March 2023 7 "The Teal Housewives" 16 March 2023 8 "The Big Red Dragon" 23 March 2023 9 "Back to the Future" 30 March 2023 10 "The NDIS" 6 April 2023 11 "The Woke Mind Virus" 20 April 2023 12 "Captain Planet" 27 April 2023 13 "Jimonomics" 4 May 2023 14 "Jobseeker" 11 May 2023 15 "Box Tickers" 18 May 2023 16 "Woke Cinema" 25 May 2023 17 "Rental Crisis" 1 June 2023 18 "Chicken Little" 8 June 2023 19 "The Higgins Case" 15 June 2023 20 "The Future" 22 June 2023 21 "Recession" 29 June 2023 22 "The Nationals" 6 July 2023 23 "Woke Vision" 13 July 2023 24 "Censorship" 20 July 2023 25 "Referendum" 27 July 2023 26 "Housing Australia Future Fund" 3 August 2023 27 "Gender Confusion" 10 August 2023 28 "Global Boiling" 24 August 2023 29 "The Uluru Statement" 31 August 2023 30 "60 Day Dispensing" 7 September 2023 31 "Behind the Scenes" 14 September 2023 32 "Qantas" 21 September 2023 33 "Net Zero" 28 September 2023 34 "The Media's Voice" 5 October 2023 35 "Vote No" 12 October 2023 36 "The Blame Game" 19 October 2023 37 "Airbus Albo" 24 November 2023 38 "Minecraft" 2 December 2023 39 "Alphanese" 8 December 2023 40 "What Is a Woman?" 15 December 202341"The Christmas Special"22 December 2023
Specials (2023) +#TitleRelease date1"Thank You for Helping Make 'Pauline Hanson's Please Explain' Possible!"17 November 2023
Season 3 (2024) # Title Release date 1 "Distractions" 1 March 2024 2 "Chinese Spies" 8 March 2024 3 "Diversity, Inclusion, Equity" 15 March 2024 4 "Champagne Socialists" 22 March 2024 5 "The Albanese government" 29 March 2024 6 "Digital ID" 5 April 2024 7 "Carbon Capture Storage in the GAB" 12 April 2024 8 "Net-Zero-Bot" 19 April 2024 9 "eSafety Commissioner" 26 April 2024 10 "Immigration Junkies" 3 May 2024 11 "Bad Budgets and Big Computers" 17 May 2024 12 "Political Hit Jobs" 24 May 2024 13 "The Polls" 31 May 2024 14 "The Man from Snowy Hydro" 7 June 2024 15 "The State of Queensland" 14 June 2024 16 "Inside Albo" 21 June 2024 17 "The Big Rort" 5 July 2024 18 "NDIS: The Movie" 12 July 2024 19 "Division" 19 July 2024 20 "Cashless" 26 July 2024 21 "A Migrant A Minute" 2 August 2024 22 "Oppression Olympics" 9 August 2024 23 "Broken Promises" 16 August 2024 24 "National Insecurity" 23 August 2024 25 "Forgetting Adam Bandt" 6 September 2024 26 "Albo's War on Everything" 13 September 2024 27 "Censorship (A.K.A. Misinformation and Censorship)" 20 September 2024 28 "I'm Not Scomo (A.K.A. I Promise I'm Not Scomo)" 4 October 2024 29 "Day in the Life of a Green" 11 October 2024 30 "The State of Melbourne" 18 October 2024 31 "QueenSLAM 2024 (A.K.A. Queensland Election)" 25 October 2024 32 "Lefties Losing It" 8 November 2024 33 "[CENSORED]" 15 November 2024 34 "Please Explained (Part 1)" 22 November 2024 35 "Please Explained (Part 2)" 29 November 2024
Season 4 (2026) # Title Release date 1 "Welcome to Australia" 24 April 2026 2 "GetUp" 8 May 2026 3 "Labor Lies" 22 May 2026 4 "Defund the ABC" 5 June 2026 5 "Dark Forces" 26 June 2026 6 "The Pelican" 10 July 2026 7 "Don't Be Hastie" 24 July 2026 8 "Rent Free" 7 August 2026 9 "The Labor Backrooms" 21 August 2026
Controversies Due to its content, the series has been subject to numerous controversies, mostly due to the content of specific episodes, which, while satirical, has been perceived by some as defamatory or offensive. The series has also been accused of promoting disinformation.
A report from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) labelled the series "far-right", which Hanson has denied.
Controversial episodes
"Voter Fraud" In April 2022, the party was warned by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) over the episode "Voter Fraud", where Labor is shown rigging postal votes for the 2022 federal election to get elected (therefore falsely implying electoral fraud). In the episode, then-Opposition Leader (and later Prime Minister) Anthony Albanese is seen laying in bed sick with COVID-19 and is offered a soup that contains a live bat by Penny Wong. Wong hands Albanese electoral ballots (including one of his dog Toto), with Wong telling him to fill in the ballots to rig the election in favour of the Labor Party. The episode has been geoblocked in Australia on all of One Nation's official social media accounts upon request from the AEC. The AEC also warned the party for its lack of official authorisation at the end of the cartoons, which has since been added to every episode.
"The NDIS" In April 2023, One Nation was also criticised for the episode "The NDIS", which mocks the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). In the episode, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley visit a doctor who tells them that after the Liberal Party was "destroyed in Aston" (in reference to the party's historic loss at the 2023 Aston by-election), the party has been severely damaged but is now eligible for the NDIS. The doctor presents to them a video featuring Albanese and NDIS Minister Bill Shorten who mention perceivably bad things about the NDIS and repeatedly erroneously call the scheme the "National Disability Insurance Scam" before correcting themselves (implying that the NDIS is a scam).
"Gender Confusion" In September 2024, the episode "Gender Confusion" was re-released, which removed Life Education Australia branding that was present in the original version of the episode. The revised episode's description claimed that "originally, this episode didn't get the attention it deserved due to some behind-the-scenes hiccups", likely as a result of a copyright claim by Life Education Australia. The episode still features the iconic giraffe puppet Healthy Harold, the mascot of Life Education Australia.
"The State of Queensland" In June 2024, Australian conservationist Robert Irwin's lawyers threatened to sue Hanson over the episode "The State of Queensland", which criticises the state Labor government's policies on issues such as crime, native title, health and the economy. It features Irwin and cartoon character Bluey (a dog who is the titular character of a popular Australian children's animated television series set in Brisbane, who the Queensland Government are using to promote tourism in the state). Hanson refused to take the video down and told Irwin to "lighten up".
"Don't Be Hastie" In September 2026, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie labelled Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce as "lying cowards" over the episode "Don't be Hastie", which labelled him as a "traitor" for giving evidence against military veteran Ben Roberts-Smith in a defamation trial against him. Hastie told them to either "own up" to the accusations of being a traitor or delete the video. Hastie stated that he would not take legal action against the statement, adding that he would not sue someone who was backed financially by Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart. Pauline Hanson responded, stating she was "not calling him a traitor to this country" and it was simply a "satirical cartoon". Barnaby Joyce responded by saying that he was just being "emotional" because of the electoral risk One Nation posed on Hastie's electorate, Canning, referencing the Secret Harbour state by-election, which had One Nation win the seat of Secret Harbour, which overlaps Hastie's electorate.
Multiple politicians from different parties have also criticised Hanson's claims against Hastie. Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie claimed that Hanson was an "angry little woman" and an attack on Hastie would mean an attack on all that served. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said it was "wrong for the cartoon to stay on the internet" and Energy Minister Chris Bowen said that Hastie was a "patriot". The Returned and Services League of Australia also criticised Hanson over the episode.
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