Joe Rogan has accused Australia of “f**king up” by surrendering its guns after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, while reiterating that he would never move to the country.
During a January conversation with comedian Kurt Metzger, the world’s biggest podcaster attacked the gun buyback program introduced under then-Prime Minister John Howard, claiming Australians had been misled about its purpose.
“They thought they were doing the right thing… and now their government is just locking them up for anything they want,” Rogan said on a podcast earlier this year.
Metzger went further, describing Australia as a “cage,” calling its citizens “a bunch of punks” and claiming he believed the massacre was a “government-run mass shooting.”
The sweeping gun reforms followed the Port Arthur massacre, in which 35 people were killed in an attack that shocked the nation.
The Howard government worked alongside state and territory leaders to prohibit a range of weapons and introduce a large-scale buyback scheme. More than 650,000 firearms were ultimately surrendered.
A new National Gun Buyback Scheme was announced after the 2025 Bondi massacre, which left 15 people dead.
Under the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2025, owners of newly prohibited firearms will be paid to hand over their weapons from November 2.
Joe Rogan said Australians “f**ked up” by surrendering their weapons after the Port Arthur massacre
Kurt Metzger described Australia as a “cage” and claimed it was controlled by an Arthurian-style shadow government
Rogan has repeatedly criticised Australia in recent years, targeting a range of government policies, including COVID-19 lockdown measures and censorship.
Some of his podcast guests, however, have challenged his condemnation of the Australian government.
Last year, Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe defended Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during an appearance on the podcast, describing the political environment surrounding him as a “conga line of stupidity.”
Crowe made the comments after Rogan asked bluntly: “What is wrong with the way Australia is run?”
In reply, Crowe praised Albanese’s leadership and accused political opponents and media figures of distracting attention from his achievements.
“We’re a little bit lucky at the moment, we have a Prime Minister who is very much motivated by trying to help everybody, which should be the job of a politician, right? To improve the lives of the people they represent,” he said.
“There’s haters on every corner, but he’s a good man.”
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On an earlier podcast, Rogan offered a more positive assessment of Australia and its people, saying: “It’s a rugged place, and the kind of people that live there, they’re fun.”
He added: “They’ve kind of got a super f***** up oppressive government, unfortunately.”
Rogan also said in 2024 that he would never move Down Under.
The remarks came during a conversation with retired mixed martial arts fighter Royce Gracie as they discussed what they saw as diminishing personal freedoms in the US amid rising crime.
‘I keep telling people if America falls I think the whole world will fall, the rest of the world will fall,’ Gracie said.
‘Yeah, maybe that’s the plan,’ responded Rogan.
‘There’s no place that has this kind of freedom,’ he added.
Gracie then asked: ‘Where would you go?’
Rogan said he had once considered Australia a viable alternative to the US, but had since changed his mind.
‘I used to think Australia but then I saw how they handled the pandemic. I was like, “oh f***, that well that’s what happens when no one has guns”,’ he said.
‘Yep, the army just rolls in and tells you what to do and puts you in concentration camps because you have a cold, like it’s crazy.’
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia required people arriving in the country to quarantine before entering the community.
Most were housed in hotels, while some were placed in temporary isolation facilities.
Rogan repeatedly attacked Australia’s COVID-19 response during the pandemic, accusing the government of imposing heavy-handed restrictions.
‘There’s some crazy shit going on right now where the army is trying to keep people inside in Australia,’ he said in 2021.
‘They have full on government lockdowns where the government is flying helicopters over streets saying “go back indoors, you’re not allowed outside”.
‘Which is crazy – this disease does not even transmit well outside. Being outside and getting vitamin D is probably one of the best things you can do.’
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