Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have been labelled “lying cowards” by a federal Liberal MP as a row over an alleged war criminal intensifies.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie claimed in an email to supporters this week Senator Hanson had branded him a traitor, following a cartoon video posted to the One Nation leader’s X account.
The nine-minute video, posted on July 23, remained pinned at the top of the senator’s X account.
There has been tension between Mr Hastie, an SAS veteran, and Senator Hanson since he spoke out against accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.
The row heightened when Mr Hastie was subpoenaed to testify in court against Roberts-Smith.
Senator Hanson’s closest supporter, billionaire Gina Rinehart, has backed Roberts-Smith, and has named a planned housing complex for veterans in his honour.
But Senator Hanson denied suggesting Mr Hastie was a traitor, telling The Nightly newspaper she would define him as “a wanker”.
Mr Joyce on Wednesday denied knowledge of the cartoon.
“I dearly hope that nobody is threatening Andrew or his family, and certainly not premising (threats) on anything to do with One Nation,” he told reporters.
“It’s got nothing to do with One Nation.”
Mr Hastie branded Senator Hanson and Mr Joyce, his former coalition colleague, as “lying cowards”, speaking to News24 on Wednesday.
He called on One Nation to delete the cartoon or own up to it in parliament.
The WA MP accused the party of politicising the Roberts-Smith court proceedings and “trashing” his own service record.
“I would say that Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are lying cowards, and I’ll say it again so there’s no ambiguity,” he said.
“They are lying cowards.”
“And then: On July 23, at the top of her X account, she posted a cartoon … I’m called a traitor eight times … when you start calling me a traitor to my own country, then we have a big, big problem.”
He said neither had served “a day in our uniform overseas on operations”.
“I stand with a lot of Australians who believe in the rule of law, who believe that Australian soldiers should be held to high standards of battlefield conduct,” Mr Hastie said.
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