Joyce apologises – sort of – to Hastie over One Nation ‘traitor’ cartoon

One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has apologised to his former colleague Andrew Hastie over the minor party’s cartoon which 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.”

Joyce said he had written to Hastie on Wednesday, after the Liberal frontbencher called Joyce a “lying coward” for denying calling him a traitor. Joyce said his door was always open if the 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.”

Joyce would not say whether he had spoken to party leader Pauline Hanson about removing the cartoon, after she refused to take it down on Wednesday.

In the episode of Please Explain, Hastie is labelled a traitor for testifying in accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation action against this masthead

In a slew of 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 has said she did not think Hastie was a traitor, insisting the cartoon was satire.

Earlier on Thursday, independent senator and veteran Jacqui Lambie called Hanson a “bloody maggot” and urged former defence personnel not to vote for her.

Lambie, who served in the army for more than a decade, said Hanson was the “lowest bit of life” for attacking 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 Hanson.

“Don’t you forget she held us off for that royal commission for months,” she said.

“Her true colour’s starting to shine now … any veteran out there thinking about voting for One Nation or standing for them, I tell you what, you had better think twice.”

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 and labelling the accusation despicable.

“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.

“I’m not going to repeat the claim. I think it’s disgusting.”

King criticised Hanson for not taking responsibility for levelling “one of the most serious” accusations at Hastie.

“She’s just got this habit of gaslighting. Saying one thing, doing another thing, and then pretending it never happened, and that’s unacceptable,” King said.

As the Coalition grapples with how to combat Hanson’s rise, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the cartoon should be taken down.

“Andrew Hastie served this country with distinction as a member of the special forces of the SAS … I think [the cartoon is] wrong,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.

Hastie said on Thursday 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.