Friendlyjordies

2016–2022: Miscellaneous

In 2016, he campaigned against the Sydney lockout laws.^[8] In 2020, The Daily Telegraph journalist Joe Hildebrand made a complaint to New South Wales police accusing Shanks of stalking and harassment. The police laid no charges.^[9]

In July 2021, Shanks released an hour-long self-produced documentary entitled Blood Water: the war for Australia's water, discussing floodplain harvesting in rural New South Wales and particularly Riverina. In the video the practice of floodplain harvesting was described as "water theft".^[10] In 2022, Shanks interviewed Twitter commentator PRGuy who revealed himself to be Jeremy Maluta, circumventing an attempt by far-right provocateur Avi Yemini to identify the owner of the account through legal action.^[11][12] In May 2022, Shanks made a cameo appearance as a current affairs reporter in an episode of Housos, which was titled "The Thong Warrior".^[13] He also voiced several minor characters in the animated television series Koala Man in January 2023.^[14]

2019–2020: Bushfires

In 2019 and 2020, Shanks released multiple videos alleging that the then New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian was one of the main people responsible for increasing the risk of bushfires and the destruction of the koala population in Australia. He created the Twitter hashtag #koalakiller, in reference to Berejiklian.^[15] On 10 June 2020, Shanks released an interview with New South Wales Opposition Leader Jodi McKay, discussing topics including the state and federal governments' response to the 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, including widespread deaths of animals.^[16] Shanks raised $300,000 for bushfire relief from his stand-up shows and sales of #koalakiller t-shirts.^[17]

2019: Clive Palmer

In 2019, Shanks published a video covering businessman Clive Palmer who was running in the 2019 Australian federal election. There were existing allegations of financial irregularity in the liquidation of Palmer's company Queensland Nickel^[18] and alleged failure to pay the company's workers,^[19][20] which Shanks covered, alongside satirising Palmer's behaviour and appearance. In response, Palmer threatened a defamation lawsuit, demanding A$500,000 and that Shanks cease making public statements about him.^[21] Shanks said he would not "capitulate" and released merchandise containing the statements in question.^[21] In a video addressing Palmer, he said "one tiny miscalculation. I'm a millennial. Going bankrupt doesn't scare me. I don't have a house."^[7] Commentators noted that Palmer appeared to have created a Streisand effect.^[20][22] Other commentators said that Palmer's legal threat was substantially similar to a SLAPP suit and that such threats had a 'chilling effect' on public interest reporting.^[23]

2020–2022: John Barilaro

In a political commentary video uploaded 29 June 2020, Shanks included an impersonation of John Barilaro, Deputy Premier of New South Wales, which Barilaro described as "very offensive" and "full of racist undertones".^[24] Shanks subsequently filmed a video inside a rental property owned by Barilaro, accusing him of corruption and environmental vandalism.^[25][26] In May 2021 Shanks published a letter sent by Barilaro in December of a threat to sue for defamation. In response, Shanks turned up dressed as the video game character Luigi at a National Party event at Macquarie University where Barilaro was giving a speech.^[27][28] Barilaro lodged defamation proceedings against Shanks on 27 May 2021.^[29] On 8 July, Shanks's legal team responded by filing a truth defence, supported by an honest opinion defence for a subset of claims.^[30][29]

In June 2021, friendlyjordies producer Kristo Langker was arrested by officers from the Fixated Persons Unit (FPU), a specialised counterterrorism police unit who often targets lone wolf terrorists, established in response to the 2014 Lindt Cafe siege.^[31] Langker was charged with two counts of stalking and intimidating Barilaro after Langker had approached Barilaro at a National Party event with Shanks and on another occasion, where Langker had approached Barilaro while Langker was heading to his university.^[32][33][9] Langker's lawyer Mark Davis contested the police's accounts, and he denounced the timing of the arrest being soon after the defamation lawsuit commenced and criticised the use of the FPU.^[33] In August 2021 it was revealed that Barilaro had been in contact with the FPU regarding Shanks for at least six months prior to Langker's arrest.^[34] This contradicted what Barilaro had earlier told Sky News Australia host Tom Connell, saying that he had not requested the FPU become involved in the matter.^[34][35] In October 2021 John Barilaro resigned as Deputy Premier of New South Wales and as the member for Monaro, citing his defamation case against Shanks as a "big reason" for the decision.^[36][37]

In November 2021, Barilaro settled the defamation case with Shanks, and Shanks issued the following apology: "Mr Shanks accepts that some of the videos he posted were offensive to Mr Barilaro. Mr Shanks understands that Mr Barilaro has been hurt, and apologises to him for that hurt." Shanks was required to pay $100,000 in legal costs and Barilaro received no damages from the settlement. Shanks agreed to edit some of the contested videos, which would remain online, and to stop selling merchandise featuring Barilaro after Barilaro's retirement from politics.^[38][39]

As of 10 March 2022, the NSW Police dropped all charges against Langker who is considering taking civil action against the police.^[32] Conduct of the NSW Fixated Persons Unit has been brought into question with Attorney General Mark Speakman being questioned over the case in budget estimates. Speakman refused to further comment, conceding that the matter may appear before Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.^[40] On 6 June 2022, the Federal Court judge awarded Barilaro $715,000 in defamation damages from Google for the YouTube videos, and referred Shanks and Google for possible prosecution for contempt of court.^[41]

2020–2023: ClubsNSW

In 2020, Troy Stolz was a compliance officer employed by gambling lobby group ClubsNSW. Stolz contacted journalists and federal MP Andrew Wilkie, alleging that clubs in NSW were engaged in widespread non-compliance with anti-money laundering laws. Following this, ClubsNSW terminated Stolz' employment. Stolz sued for unfair dismissal and ClubsNSW counter-sued for unlawful use of confidential information.^[42][43][44] In 2021, Shanks uploaded multiple videos to the friendlyjordies channel where he criticised ClubsNSW, including a video interview with Troy Stolz titled "The legal way to take a life", in which Stolz detailed his battle with cancer and the impact of his federal court dispute with his former employer ClubsNSW.^[43][44]

ClubsNSW began a private prosecution against both Shanks and Stolz in 2022, alleging that the video interview constituted contempt of court by both, because of a previous federal court order which restrained Stolz from making any public statements which were designed to "intimidate, harass, or otherwise bring improper pressure" on ClubsNSW. ClubsNSW argued that contempt proceedings should be held in secret, stating that public hearings would give Shanks and Stolz the "opportunity to escalate attacks against ClubsNSW and its legal representatives".^[44] In July 2022 ClubsNSW sought and obtained an interim suppression order without either Shanks or Stolz having a chance to argue against it. Subsequently, the video interview was taken down.^[43] On 2 September 2022 the application for the suppression order was heard in full and was declined by the court.^[44]

In October 2022, the NSW Crime Commission released a report stating that criminals were in fact laundering billions of dollars using poker machines in NSW clubs and pubs.^[45] In February 2023, ClubsNSW discontinued all legal action against Shanks and Stolz.^[44] The withdrawal of the court cases came after the chief executive of ClubsNSW, Josh Landis, was sacked.^[44]

2022–present: Firebombing incidents

On 19 August 2022, Shanks published a video titled "Coronation", where he discussed John Barilaro's new employment at the Sydney-based property developer Coronation Property Group, and he revealed links between Coronation and the Alameddine organised crime family.^[46] Police launched investigations into two attempts to burn down Shanks's house in Bondi Beach: one attempt on 17 November 2022, which mistakenly targeted his next-door neighbour; and another on 23 November 2022, which successfully burned down his home.^[47] In a statement, Shanks's lawyers stated that his home had been "firebombed", and that he was not home at the time of the attacks.^[48]

In December 2023, Tufi Junior Tauese-Auelua, an associate of the Alameddine crime network was arrested by police and charged with two counts of destroying or damaging property by fire.^[49] The NSW police stated that there was a "strong possibility" the attack was retaliation for Shanks's video alleging links between the Alameddine crime network and the Coronation Property Group.^[49][50] Friendlyjordies producer Kristo Langker reported to police that ABC reporter Mahmood Fazal repeatedly informed him in January 2024 that he had been communicating with "very serious gang figures" who were threatening that "something bad is going to happen" if the "Coronation" video was not deleted from YouTube.^[51] In February 2024, Shanks subsequently removed the video from his channel, citing non-specific death threats as the reason.^[46] In September 2025, Tauese-Auelua was sentenced to five years in jail over the firebombing.^[52] In October 2025, messages allegedly from Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal were leaked showing death threats directed at Shanks. When asked, Fazal claimed that the messages expressing his desire to "kill" Shanks had been falsified, while others were taken out of context.^[53]