A One Nation parody cartoon targeting Andrew Hastie risks normalising dangerous rhetoric in Australian politics, an expert in online hostility has warned.
His comments came after the senior Liberal MP and former special forces soldier was referred to as a "traitor" in a video posted on social media by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Mr Hastie and Senator Hanson have traded barbs since Wednesday after an episode of a satirical cartoon referring to Mr Hastie as a "traitor" eight times was posted to the One Nation leader's X account.
Senator Hanson has brushed off complaints, saying the cartoon shouldn't be taken too seriously.
But her Please Explain video series is not satire, according to Jay Daniel Thompson, a senior lecturer in Professional Communication at RMIT University.
"This is little more a thinly disguised attack against Andrew Hastie for acting with integrity and testifying against Ben Roberts-Smith," Dr Thompson told AAP.
The tension between the Liberal MP and Senator Hanson stems from him testifying during the defamation trial of now-accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith, with whom Mr Hastie served in the SAS.
Senator Hanson disputed claims against Roberts-Smith, instead labelling Mr Hastie "a wanker". In return Mr Hastie slammed her and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce as "lying cowards" and demanded they delete the video.
Dr Thompson said the rhetoric used in the video is "demeaning, bordering on violent".
"The whole video drips with a barely disguised malice," he said.
"This cartoon threatens to continue the ongoing normalisation of hostile and degrading rhetoric in Australian political discourse."
Mr Joyce has since apologised to Mr Hastie.
"He explained that he didn’t know about the cartoon that called me a traitor eight times," Mr Hastie said in a statement.
"I accept his explanation. I called him a lying coward because I thought he was protecting Pauline Hanson.
"I now know that she is the only lying coward."
The RSL has added to calls for party leader Pauline Hanson to take down the cartoon video, which remains pinned to her X profile.
"When the word 'traitor' is thrown at someone who has worn the uniform and deployed on operations, that stops being politics and starts being an attack on every veteran's service," it said in a statement.
"Branding a former soldier a 'traitor' sends a corrosive message to the wider veteran community: that your service can be recast as betrayal the moment it's politically convenient."
