Robert Irwin threatens to sue One Nation over video: James Ashby responds
One Nation has extended an olive branch to Robert Irwin after the wildlife warrior threatened to sue over a One Nation cartoon Queensland’s Premier labelled “offensive to everyone”.
QLD News
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James Ashby has invited Robert Irwin out to dinner with him and Pauline Hanson on Friday to “hash things out” after the wildlife warrior threatened to sue One Nation over a cartoon featuring him in a ploy to slam the government.
The YouTube video, part of Senator Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain series, was posted on Friday and features cartoon versions of Mr Irwin and Bluey.
One Nation had earlier told Irwin to “lighten up” and refused to take down the video, with Senator Pauline Hanson saying: “Lighten up mate, your father was a larrikin.”
Premier Steven Miles on Monday slammed Pauline Hanson and her party saying the video was offensive to everyone involved.
“This is what Pauline Hanson does right. She has been doing it for decades now,” he said.
“She comes up with a controversial thing. You all put it on the news and she gets the results she wants so I am not going give it any more oxygen.
“I think it’s pretty offensive to me to Steve Irwin, and to Bluey and who could offend Bluey?
“This is just what One Nation does to try to get headlines. I know she knew that this was going to result in legal proceedings, that’s why she did it.”
Mr Ashby told The Courier-Mail that he doesn’t want a “war with the Irwins”.
“No one wants a war with the Irwins, they’re a much loved cherished Queensland staple, so no one is looking for that,” Mr Ashby said.
“I think the best way to put water under the bridge is to catch up, let’s have a dinner, steak and wine, sit down by the fire, and just let this all go to bed.”
Mr Ashby went onto acknowledge the success that the “Irwin effect” has had on the cartoon going viral.
“I’d love to get together with Robert to chew the fat over it and see who is responsible for this silly bloody idea,” he said.
“Maybe Robert had this great idea that he’d blow this up to get extra media attention for Queensland.
“Maybe this was a clever, nuanced way of being able to bring to the Australian people’s attention the state of Queensland and he’s done it in two ways through his tourism ad and now by blowing up a satirical cartoon that was only released three days ago.
“We always produce our cartoons every week to get maximum eyeballs, but who would have thought that the Streisand effect would blow it up this big, or in this case the Irwin effect.”
“Hell no, it’s staying up there,” Mr Ashby said.
“We’ve got until tomorrow [Monday] afternoon apparently to take it down, but it ain’t going anywhere.”
On Monday, Senator Hanson took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to confirm she won’t be removing the video.
“You might have heard that last week’s episode of Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain resulted in a cease and desist letter from Robert Irwin, demanding we take the episode down,” Senator Hanson posted to X.
“I can confidently say we won’t be taking the episode down and I’m hoping Robert decides to lighten up a bit.
“This episode highlighted the struggles many Queenslanders are facing due to the serious failures of the Miles Labor state government.
“We won’t let that message be shut down.”
Mr Ashby said he was disappointed Mr Irwin was upset, after portraying his character and Bluey as heroes.
“I’m quite disappointed that Robert is upset to be quite frank, because that was never the intention,” he said.
“We actually set about to make Robert and Bluey the heroes.
“I think the greatest villain in this episode was the Queensland Government who after nine years have destroyed our state they’ve made a mockery of our Bruce Highway. It’s a goat track.
“I travelled it yesterday [Saturday] all the way back up from Brisbane back into Yeppoon and it is littered with potholes that Bluey fell down.
“We’ve got a hospital system that’s failing, we’ve got housing queues for people to try and get rentals out the wazoo and juvenile crime which has just deteriorated over these years because the Labor Party just don’t want to deal with young juvenile delinquents.”
Mr Ashby also took aim at the Queensland Government over the expenditure on its recent marketing campaign.
“This has now had in three days, 3 million hits on a range of different social media platforms,” he said.
“You know, eat your heart out, Queensland Tourism and the state government.
“We paid $11,000 for this episode that we put out on Friday. We’ve had 3 million hits. How many have you had for your ad across the country and how much did you pay for it? That’s the big question here.”
Defamation lawyer John Christian at Victor Legal said if Mr Irwin and his legal team proceed with the action, they will have to prove that his reputation has been damaged.
“It’s a fine line with defamation when something is used in satire, but if it’s not pulled off, properly by the publisher, it can quickly fall into the territory of being defamatory,” Mr Christian said.
“Individuals and businesses up to a certain size are entitled to reputational protection.
“What I understand about the cartoon publication is that Robert Irwin came out as the hero in that cartoon, so his lawyers will need to prove that the statements and use of his image and the way he was portrayed in that cartoon has injured his reputation.”
Referencing the portrayal of Mr Irwin as a hero, Mr Christian added that in his understanding there is the potential that the defamation claim may not succeed.
“In terms of his legal grounds of what I understand about the publication, it doesn’t appear that his action in defamation would necessarily be successful,” he said.
“But again, he’s not like every other individual in Australia who does have notoriety in the community around the world, so his barometer for reputational protection may be different.”
Mr Christian added that a potential legal battle would feature the most unlikely of characters.
“You have quite polar opposite characters in the Australian fabric, you have Pauline Hanson a former fish and chip shop owner now leader of the One Nation party and Robert Irwin, an iconic animal warrior and the poster boy for animal welfare and Australia Zoo,” he said.
“You couldn’t get quite different characters embroiled in a legal stoush.”
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