Australia’s national broadcaster will send a cease and desist letter to the 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.

The ABC’s 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 the 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,…