FRONT PAGE: Sunday Mail Exposes Hanson V Irwin Saga

Robert Irwin has threatened to sue Pauline Hanson's One Nation over a scathing video the party created using him to slam the Queensland Labor government. Read more below 

The YouTube video, part of Senator Pauline Hanson's Please Explain satirical series, was posted online on Friday and features a cartoon version of Irwin alongside children's television icon Bluey.

It has prompted a legal letter from Irwin demanding it be taken down. But One Nation has sensationally told Irwin to “lighten up” and has refused to remove the video.

The two-minute video titled “The State of Queensland” uses Irwin to criticise the Miles Labor government over the state's hospital system, roads, transport, sustainable energy policies, the housing crisis and youth crime.

It comes two weeks after the government unveiled both Bluey and Irwin as faces of its new tourism campaign.

The Sunday Mail has seen a legal letter that Irwin's lawyers sent to video studio Stepmates Studios, threatening to sue.

“We are writing to inform you that your actions constitute defamation and involve the unauthorised and deceptive use of our client's image,” Zoe Naylor of FC Lawyers wrote.

“We demand that you immediately cease and desist using this image.

“We demand that you remove this video from all and any other locations it is present.

“You are potentially liable to our client in respect of defamation, deceptive use of a person's image, passing off and misleading and deceptive conduct. We will commence legal action against you if you do not take down the video immediately.”

The letter states the video has “tarnished” Irwin's reputation and described the “unauthorised” use of his image as “particularly egregious”.

But One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said Irwin had been given a free advertising kick by being included in her cartoon and told him to “lighten up” and “get over it”.

“I've got members of parliament asking me when they get to be in the cartoon, we have people pay to get in it, so I've given him a free kick,” she said.

“And he wants to sue me over it. Lighten up mate, your father was a larrikin, an icon to Australia and the world and he would have had a good laugh.”

Senator Hanson said she wasn't “having a go” at Irwin and the suggestion of a lawsuit was “ridiculous”.

“How is he going to argue defamation? It's not about him, it's about the issues in Queensland,” she said.

In the video, an animated Irwin tries to show Bluey all the positive things in Queensland, but they are met with problems along the way.

For example, Irwin mistakes a line for a rental inspection at a dilapidated house in Rockhampton as a line for a Gold Coast theme park and shows Irwin and Bluey about to drive off in a car, only for it to be stolen by “juvenile delinquents”.

The video also highlights the poor condition of the Bruce Highway when Bluey falls into a pothole and is rushed to hospital.

The video has been shared more than 1000 times on Senator Hanson's Facebook page and has 130,000 views on X, 50,000 on YouTube and 36,000 on Facebook.

Irwin's lawyers demanded the video be removed from all sites and threaten to take action in the federal court if their demands are not met by Monday afternoon. The Sunday Mail understands the party is seeking its own legal advice. Irwin was contacted for comment.

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  • One Nation
    published this page in News 2024-06-18 09:55:58 +1000