Updated ,first published
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has apologised to his former colleague Andrew Hastie over the minor party’s cartoon that labelled the SAS veteran a traitor.
“If he feels a sense of offence, and he obviously does, I apologise for that,” Joyce told this masthead on Thursday.
“I was unaware of the cartoon until I saw it yesterday. I don’t really follow the cartoons much since I was portrayed as a beetroot.”
In an episode of Please Explain pinned to the top of party leader Pauline Hanson’s X account, Hastie is labelled a traitor for testifying in accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action against this masthead.
Joyce’s comments follow days of mounting pressure on One Nation over the saga, as MPs from across the political spectrum backed Hastie, the RSL branded the use of “traitor” a slur, and the minor party’s WA leader distanced himself from the accusation, saying some things weren’t funny.
Joyce, who defected from the Coalition last year, said he had written to Hastie on Wednesday after the Liberal frontbencher called the One Nation MP a “lying coward” for denying he had called Hastie a traitor. Joyce said his door was always open if Hastie wanted to discuss the matter.
“I’m disappointed that he believes that I’m a liar and a coward. I’m not quite sure how he has come to that opinion,” Joyce said.
“I don’t consider Mr Hastie to be a traitor. I have the utmost respect for all those people in my family and others who have served.”
In a text message to this masthead on Thursday evening, Hastie wrote: “Barnaby has reached out. I accept his explanation and apology – that he didn’t know about the cartoon – and I don’t think he is a lying coward. But that is still my view of Pauline Hanson, and will remain so.”
Joyce would not say whether he had spoken to Hanson about removing the cartoon, after she refused to take it down on Wednesday.
Several people in the Senate on Thursday said Joyce and Hanson had an animated conversation by the chamber. Joyce denied a conflict, and told this masthead that to say so was wrong and desperate.
In several interviews this week, Hastie has defended his record and accused Hanson of politicising the saga to the point of risking a fair trial as Roberts-Smith faces war crimes charges. Hanson said on Wednesday she did not think Hastie was a traitor, insisting the cartoon was satire.
Earlier on Thursday, independent senator Jacqui Lambie, who served in the army for more than a decade, called Hanson a “bloody maggot” for her attack on a veteran.
“What [Hanson’s] doing in those cartoons is absolutely disgusting. They are full of bloody violence. I mean, how people can watch that rubbish is beyond me,” Lambie told ABC radio.
“That woman is nothing less than a bloody coward. She always has been, and she always will be. She wouldn’t last one day in that goddamn uniform. Leave our veterans alone.”
Lambie urged former Defence personnel not to vote for One Nation.
In a separate interview on News24, an emotional Lambie accused Hanson of trying to grab attention without ever achieving anything of substance. “She’s finished, I’m onto you now,” Lambie said.
“Anybody that hides behind a cartoon and goes after a veteran and calls them … paranoid traitor, and a washed-up gutless maggot – I have to say, you’re a bloody maggot yourself, and you’re a coward.”
The federal police have upgraded Hastie’s security at his home and office over threats to his safety amid an online campaign after he told the Federal Court in 2022 that it was a “fairly well-established rumour” that Roberts-Smith had kicked a person under the control of the Australian forces off a cliff in Afghanistan, and had a reputation as a bully among the ranks.
Labor frontbencher Madeleine King also leapt to Hastie’s defence, commending him for standing up to Hanson.
“I think how Pauline Hanson has treated Andrew Hastie is appalling – one of the more appalling things I have seen in my whole career,” she told News24.
RSL Australia said what began as a political dispute had gone too far.
“When a person’s military service is used as the punchline, when the word ‘traitor’ is thrown at someone who has worn the uniform and deployed on operations, that stops being politics and starts being an attack on every veteran’s service,” the nation’s largest ex-service organisation said in a statement on social media.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and opposition defence spokesman James Paterson both came to their colleague’s defence.
“Andrew Hastie served this country with distinction as a member of the special forces of the SAS … I think [the cartoon is] wrong,” Taylor said.
Paterson said that if One Nation did not take down the cartoon, “it’s not just an attack on Andrew Hastie, it’s an attack on every veteran and every serving member of the ADF”.
Hastie said Hanson’s argument that she had never called him a traitor was “BS”.
“She posted it and pinned it on her X account, and she authorised it,” he said. “So to play dumb is just ridiculous.”
Hastie said Hanson was not fit to be prime minister, and that the minor party leader’s angry appearance on News24 (formerly Sky News) on Wednesday was evidence she was not leadership material.
“She showed herself to be brittle. She’s happy to make cartoons that are highly defamatory of other people, and then as soon as she gets a bit of pushback she goes to water,” Hastie said.
Hastie said he would not be pursuing legal action because Hanson was backed by mining billionaire Gina Rinehart – a staunch defender of Roberts-Smith.
“Why would I walk into a fight that I can’t win financially? But yes, I’m going to impose costs politically,” he told Radio National.
Asked by this masthead how much he believed One Nation’s attacks on him were driven by Rinehart’s influence, Hastie said: “That’s a question for Pauline Hanson. Suffice to say, she enjoys a good time with Gina Rinehart.”
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