{"id":888170,"date":"2026-09-11T13:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888170\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T13:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T13:26:12","slug":"hastie-accepts-apology-from-joyce-over-traitor-cartoon-as-hanson-doubles-down-and-tells-critics-to-chill-pauline-hanson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/888170\/","title":{"rendered":"Hastie accepts apology from Joyce over \u2018traitor\u2019 cartoon as Hanson doubles down and tells critics to \u2018chill\u2019 | Pauline Hanson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Hastie has accepted an apology from his former colleague Barnaby Joyce over a One Nation cartoon video labelling the former SAS captain a traitor but reiterated that he believed Pauline Hanson<\/a> was a \u201clying coward\u201d.<\/p>\n

The apology has revealed a split between Joyce and his leader, as Hanson instead appeared to double down on the controversial animation on social media, thanking Hastie for drawing attention to the video posted more than one month ago and saying critics should \u201ctake a chill pill\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hastie had called on Hanson and One Nation<\/a> to take ownership of the cartoon or remove it from social media, after the One Nation leader said she personally had not called the Liberal frontbencher a traitor.<\/p>\n

The One Nation<\/a> video posted to social media in late July depicts Hastie as a pitiful and paranoid opposition leader manipulated by Anthony Albanese into taking on One Nation.<\/p>\n

It also refers to him being a traitor after he gave evidence against the Victoria Cross-winner Ben Roberts-Smith in his failed defamation trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joyce quickly distanced himself from the video on Wednesday, saying he was not aware of it. He later told the press he had reached out to Hastie.<\/p>\n

On Friday Hastie told Guardian Australia he accepted Joyce\u2019s explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarnaby Joyce has reached out to me and explained that he didn\u2019t know about the cartoon that called me a traitor eight times,\u201d Hastie said. \u201cI accept his explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called him a lying coward because I thought he was protecting Pauline Hanson. I now know that she is the only lying coward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hastie has accused Hanson of being \u201cweak\u201d and having a \u201cglass jaw\u201d and said the video not only insults him but all veterans, including others who gave evidence at the defamation trial.<\/p>\n

Hanson has refused to apologise or pull down the video and has taken aim at critics including Jacqui Lambie<\/a>, who backed Hastie and called the One Nation leader an \u201cangry little woman\u201d.<\/p>\n

She posted a photo of Lambie on X and wrote: \u201cI think everyone needs to take a chill pill.\u201d The video remained pinned to the top of her X account on Friday.<\/p>\n

Joyce would not weigh into whether the video should be taken down, telling News24 on Thursday night it was \u201cbeyond my pay grade\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not responsible for putting the cartoons up and I\u2019m not responsible for taking them down,\u201d he MP said. \u201cSo, you know, it\u2019s an odd discussion for me.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf I believe a person\u2019s hurt and I listen to it and I think, no, that\u2019s fair enough, you\u2019re not a traitor, therefore if you feel hurt by that because you think it\u2019s too close to the bone, even though it\u2019s a cartoon, I\u2019m not making excuses because it\u2019s a cartoon, but it wasn\u2019t actually said by anybody in One Nation to him then nonetheless, it should be apologised for, so I apologise.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the One Nation senator Sean Bell said it was a \u201cshame\u201d Hastie had decided to make the issue about himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the party has anything to apologise for,\u201d he told News24. \u201cI think people should go and watch the cartoon, because I think, in it, there\u2019s a lot of very insightful things, because it\u2019s not just about Mr Hastie, it\u2019s about the Liberal party<\/a> as a whole. It\u2019s about the Labor party and some of the tricks they use.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Hastie\u2019s has been looking to have a fight and a conflict with One Nation for a long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Liberals, Lambie, the RSL and the Greens have all criticised the video, and pushed for it to be taken down.<\/p>\n

On Friday the defence minister and deputy prime minister, Richard Marles<\/a>, said the use of the word traitor was \u201ctasteless\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew Hastie is definitely not a traitor,\u201d he told ABC radio. \u201cI know him well and I\u2019ve said this publicly. I very much honour the service that Andrew Hastie<\/a> has given to our country, wearing our nation\u2019s uniform. I think to use that word in respect of a veteran is extremely tasteless.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one should be using that word in respect of any veteran and in respect of Andrew.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Hastie has accepted an apology from his former colleague Barnaby Joyce over a One Nation cartoon video…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-888170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}