A PERTH father has dressed his son up as Ben Cousins — complete with white powder on his nose — to tell people to “lighten up” over the Nic Naitanui blackface scandal.

The image, shared thousands of times on Facebook, shows the young boy in a West Coast Eagles guernsey, holding a Ben Cousins book with white powder on his nose.

The former Eagles star and 2005 Brownlow Medallist has had a public battle with drug abuse, attending rehabilitation multiple times towards the end of his 270-game AFL career.

Last week, a Perth mother sparked debate after painting her child brown so he could dress as his hero Nic Naitanui at a schoolbook week function.

Camera Icon The boy dressed up as ex-Eagles star Ben Cousins. Credit: Supplied, Facebook

She was criticised for racism and was reportedly too afraid to leave her home after receiving threats on social media.

Mindarie-based father posted the now-deleted image on Facebook, criticising the “butt-hurt” public and their treatment of the boy dressed as Nic Nat.

“It’s a piss take because of the Nic Nat issue — lighten up,” he reportedly said.

Later talking to 6PR, the Perth father said he had “no regrets” about the post, claiming reaction to the image was an indictment on the Australian public.

“It was just shared internally among my own friends at the start and then I saw on a Ben Cousins parody page people were getting up in arms about the whole Nic Nat situation,” he said.

“I thought to myself ‘this poor kid is dressed up like his hero and he’s being vilified for it’ — I’ll give you something to whinge about.”

“It’s quite damning on Australia that 20,000 people thought it was funny but were quick to jump on the Nic Nat kid.”

“That’s what I tried to highlight — there’s a bit of a double standard when it comes to political correctness.

“People think that anything to do with drug use is hilarious but we’re quick to jump on a kid who’s painted a kid black who’s quite innocent.”

He said he hoped the post had not caused any backlash for Ben Cousins personally.