Australia’s national broadcaster will send a cease and desist letter to rightwing populist party One Nation for using Bluey in a “shocking and disrespectful” cartoon which sees the beloved character repeatedly ramming politicians with an SUV.
ABC managing director Hugh Marks told Senate estimates on Tuesday he became aware of One Nation’s potential breach of intellectual property last week and sought legal advice. “We will be taking further action, I can assure you,” he said.
The legal dispute came to light after Western Australian Labor senator Varun Ghosh asked the ABC if it had sought legal advice over the 2024 political cartoon, called State of Melbourne, which has had 1.3m views on YouTube so far.
“I appreciate it was published two years ago, but has a particular poignancy in the last week,” Ghosh, the communications committee chair said.
Estimates was held a week after the alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines outside the politician’s northern Victorian electorate office, which led to her losing both legs.
Marks said he believed the use is a clear breach of intellectual property and “a cease and desist letter should be issued”.
He revealed the ABC had been in contact with Bluey’s international distributor, BBC Studios, and the Brisbane-based creators Ludo. He said Pauline Hanson’s party had not sought permission to use the children’s character in the hit show. The BBC, Ludo and One Nation have been approached for comment.
“It’s not a parody of any Bluey work,” Marks said. “It’s not a minor use of the [intellectual property]. In my view, it is an infringement of the intellectual property, number one. But it’s also a shocking use of Australia’s most loved character.”
“In fact, probably the globally most loved character in a video. That is both shocking and disrespectful to the children of Australia who love that character so much.”
The animation shows Bluey behind the wheel striking a depiction of former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and prime minister Anthony Albanese with an SUV, as well as TV host and conservationist Robert Irwin. Before he is run over the Albanese character says to Bluey: “You’ve got that crazy look in your eyes”.
In one scene in the three minute video Andrews is at the wheel, Albanese is his passenger and the car deliberately runs over Bluey and Irwin. The politicians are then shown putting the bodies of Bluey and Irwin in the boot of the SUV.
In other evidence at estimates, Marks said the ABC’s former news director, Justin Stevens, received a termination payout of $353,230 because he did not want him to work out his notice.
“Following Mr Stevens’s resignation, we had the option to ask Mr Stevens to continue to work through his notice period, or for me to ask him not to work out his notice period,” Marks said.
“I felt it was important, given what had happened, that I asked him not to work out his period, and to pay him his contractual entitlement to do so.
“I felt it was important that we move forward with new leadership. So I didn’t want to continue Mr Stevens in that role.”
Stevens, whose total remuneration for the financial year was $864,394, was replaced by Reuters executive Simon Robinson last month after a 19-year career at the public broadcaster. His base salary was $529,202, according to the annual report.
Marks told senators “mistakes” were made in the production of programs by former Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal but the entire leadership of Four Corners had now been replaced.
The ABC has removed several programs made by the sacked bikie-turned-journalist because of concerns over his use of anonymous interviewees.
“We did a review of Mr Fazal’s work and found substantial flaws in much of that work,” he said.
“I think we can take confidence that there are many great people who do work for Four Corners. And with new editorial leadership, we are obviously very confident as to its future.”
The ABC said it was reviewing its editorial guidance about the use of anonymous sources in light of the Fazal incident.
Sally Neighbour, a former Four Corners executive producer, alleged in the Monthly that “an associate of Fazal played different roles in different stories, disguised behind a mask”.
Fazal has previously said he stands by his reporting. In July, he said he was “shocked” by the removal of the two Four Corners episodes and that he believed the ABC’s process and decisions “set a worrying precedent for the organisation’s independence and commitment to public-interest journalism”.
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