Communications Minister Annika Wells says the ABC is "well within its rights" to be concerned about a One Nation video in which its beloved character Bluey is run over by a car.
The Australian cartoon dog appeared in a 2024 episode of One Nation's Please Explain series, now the subject of legal action by the ABC.
In the episode, a car driven by former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews hits Bluey, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the passenger seat.
The episode implies the battered Bluey mows down the premier and prime minister later in the episode, titled The State of Melbourne.
"Bluey is one of Australia's biggest, most large, most well-known exports. I think the ABC's well within its rights to be concerned here," Wells told ABC RN on Wednesday morning.
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Wells acknowledged the video series is satirical, but said there is a line between satirising politics and making a politician's life "unbearable".
"It's certainly not something that I would produce or that I would ever ask my team to produce," she said.
ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks said it was a "shocking use of Australia's most loved character" in a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday.
"Probably the globally most loved character in a video that is both shocking and disrespectful to the children of Australia," he said.
"I can't substantiate it either legally, or on the basis of its usage."
Labor senator Varun Ghosh described Bluey's use as "heinous", particularly in light of the alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines on 19 October, where she was hit by a car and lost both legs.
To Marks' knowledge, One Nation had not licensed Bluey's likeness from BBC Studios, which distributes the TV show, but could still be entitled to show the character under fair use provisions if Please Explain is considered satire or parody.
But the ABC boss said he did not think that defence would suffice.
"It's not a parody of any Bluey work, it's not a minor use of the (intellectual property). In my view, it is an infringement of the intellectual property," he said.
"We will be taking further action. I can assure you."
The broadcaster will write One Nation a cease and desist letter demanding the video be taken down, with Marks flagging it may seek damages.
The party used Bluey in another Please Explain episode about Queensland, where the dog did not drive into any politicians.
Wells declined to comment on any legal proceedings when asked, but she added: "Bluey has a lot more production value than One Nation's cartoons. We can all learn a lot from Bluey."
One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has said the Please Explain cartoons were satire and were not meant to be taken seriously.
"You get to a point where you are sanitising beyond satire and you are starting to put restrictions on us," he told ABC TV on Tuesday.
"You've got to have some form of tolerance."
Joyce has previously apologised for another One Nation cartoon calling Liberal frontbencher and former Special Air Services soldier Andrew Hastie a "traitor".
The party's leader Pauline Hanson has also said sorry for a Please Explain episode making fun of Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie's vaginal prolapse, which has been taken down.
