In Australia, Penny Wong condemns One Nation’s violent cartoons — The Guardian

In Australia, Foreign Minister Penny Wong has condemned animated videos by the One Nation party in which she is portrayed as a victim of violence. Party leader Pauline Hanson said the videos would not be removed. This was reported by The Guardian.

Scenes of violence in the videos

In one episode of the Please Explain series, released in 2022, Wong is depicted as having been killed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: she is lying face down on a table with a knife protruding from her back. In the Super Progressive Movie cartoon, released in February, Albanese cuts off Wong’s head with an axe, mistakenly believing that he is attacking Hanson.

Wong said that One Nation’s willingness to continue depicting such violence says a great deal about the party. According to her, Australians deserve elected representatives who work to improve their lives rather than promote division, violence and personal attacks.

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One Nation’s position

The cartoons have come under increased scrutiny amid a discussion about politicians’ safety following an alleged attack last week on MP Helen Haines, who represents the Indi electorate. On Sunday, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett called on politicians to use careful and respectful rhetoric. She linked heated political rhetoric, including Hanson’s cartoons, to an increase in violent threats against politicians.

Hanson said the Please Explain cartoons were unrelated to the attack on Haines and would not disappear. She also claims that Labor and Liberal Party politicians seek to censor the videos because they do not like the critical attention directed at them.

One Nation’s Victorian leader Warren Pickering acknowledged that the cartoons may not always be appropriate or defensible, but called them an expression of freedom of speech. He rejected claims that the videos had contributed to a worsening political atmosphere and compared them to characters from the Looney Tunes animated series.