One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has told Robert Irwin to “lighten up, mate”, after the TV personality threatened to sue the producers of her political cartoon series over an episode satirising his involvement in a Queensland tourism campaign.
On Friday, FC Lawyers, representing Irwin, sent a cease and desist letter to Melbourne-based Stepmates Studios alleging an episode of Hanson’s Please Explain series, uploaded on the Queensland senator’s social media, was defamatory and deceptively used Irwin’s image.
But Hanson, during an interview with Radio 6PR in Perth this morning, has refused to take the video down.
“I’ve never met the young man, but I’d say to Robert, lighten up mate, okay, your father was an icon, he actually was a larrikin, he used to have a laugh,” she said.
“I just think it’s ridiculous, it’s not depicting Robert in a terrible way, whatsoever.”
Hanson claimed she had been given until 5pm today to remove Irwin’s image.
“I’m not backing down from it, and I will see it through to court,” she said.
“I’ve got one of the best lawyers in the country who has acted for me in a number of cases and has said this is not defamatory so I will fight it.
“It’s satirical, have we become so precious that we are actually looking at ourselves all the time without having a joke? Where’s the Australia that I grew up in where you could have a laugh and a joke at yourself?”