Ben Roberts-Smith

And we shouldn't do that.

And there's legitimate debate about the issues surrounding the Burriton Inquiry and Ben Roberts-Smith and One Nation can have a view on that.

But you should never resort to calling a serving veteran of our country those words.

No.

And I'm Andrew Hastie giving evidence again.

Ben Roberts-Smith.

Geoff points out he was called to do this under oath.

I know that, Geoff, but some people in the defence community feel that he should have perhaps lied or simply not turned up.

...

Ben Roberts-Smith.

Like, that is-

True

MPs across the political spectrum have called on One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to take down a cartoon calling WA MP Andrew Hastie a traitor.

Hastie served in the SAS in Afghanistan alongside alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

In 2022, when Roberts-Smith's defamation case against nine newspapers' journalists was before the courts, Hastie testified for the defense, saying there was a widespread view that Roberts-Smith was a bully.

The cartoon, an episode in Hanson's Please Explain series, shows PM Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers agreeing with online commentators that Hastie is a traitor.

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie unleashed on One Nation leader Pauline Hanson over claims made in Hanson's satirical cartoon series, Please Explain, about Liberal MP Andrew Hastie.

The cartoon depicted Hastie as a traitor for evidence he gave during a defamation trial brought by former commando Ben Roberts-Smith.

Hastie was a captain in the Special Air Service Regiment and says he supports the soldiers who spoke up against alleged war crimes.

Anybody that hides behind a cartoon and goes after a veteran and calls them a traitor, a paranoid traitor, and a washed-up gutless maggot, I have to say you're a bloody maggot yourself, and you're a coward.

[upbeat music] One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is resisting calls from across the political spectrum to take down a satirical cartoon that calls Liberal MP and Army veteran Andrew Hastie a traitor.

The former Special Air Service captain gave evidence for the defense in the defamation case brought by another SAF Afghanistan veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith.

Senator Hanson insists the cartoon is a joke, but her fellow parliamentarians aren't finding it so funny.

Angus Randall reports.

She wouldn't last one day in that goddamn uniform.

Leave our veterans alone, Hanson.

Andrew Hastie served with the SAS in Afghanistan alongside alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith.

In 2022, he gave evidence under subpoena in Mr. Roberts-Smith's defamation proceedings against Fairfax Media and three journalists.

The RSL has criticized One Nation leader Pauline Hanson over a satirical cartoon produced by the party in which Liberal MP and military veteran Andrew Hastie is labeled a traitor.

Mr. Hastie has been escalating a fight with Senator Hanson over the cartoon, which references his evidence in a defamation case brought by former SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith.

The RSL says the use of the term traitor is an attack on the entire veteran community and sends a corrosive message to veterans that their service can be recast as betrayal when it becomes politically convenient.

Liberal frontbencher James Paterson says the federal government has failed to keep young people off social media as the coalition continues to voice concerns over Labor's digital duty of care proposal.

What's your view?

I don't know that the clip needs to go down, but, I mean, certainly Andrew Hastie is more than entitled to defend himself and he's more than entitled to see it as an attack on him and as an attack on his service to our country, which, you know, there's the whole Ben Roberts Smith thing.

I don't have any special information about that.

But certainly...

I think it speaks to exactly what you're talking about.

Yes, and I go to my ongoing concerns about the management of the arrest on the tarmac with the glare of the media cameras.

I've been Robert Smith.

Thank you, David Craig.