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Abbott refuses to clarify if Malcolm Turnbull will appear on Q&A next week Coalition's Q&A ban was decided nearly two weeks ago, Warren Truss says
(about 2 hours later)
Tony Abbott has refused to clarify whether the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is free to go on the ABC’s Q&A program next week amid uncertainty about the details of a prime ministerial ban on such appearances. The government’s leadership team decided nearly two weeks ago to ban Coalition frontbenchers from Q&A, deputy prime minister Warren Truss has said, raising questions about why Barnaby Joyce thought as late as Sunday that he was free to go on the ABC program.
The prime minister did not take a backward step on Tuesday from his strident criticism of the program, but declined to say whether he would permit the communications minister to fulfil his commitment to join the panel. Tony Abbott spoke to the agriculture minister on Sunday to order him not to proceed with a scheduled appearance on Monday’s program, just hours after Joyce publicly recommitted to attending. Joyce said he took the prime minister’s instruction “on the chin” but “it would have been nice” to have known about it earlier.
“What I’m not going to do is give further advertisement to a program which was frankly right over the top,” Abbott said. “I’m just not going to give further advertisement to this particular matter.” But Truss told reporters in Darwin on Tuesday: “The decision was made by the leadership team which includes the prime minister and I and my deputy [Nationals] leader Barnaby Joyce on the last [parliamentary] sitting Thursday [25 June].”
The broadcaster Ray Martin – one of two people tasked by the ABC with reviewing Q&A – entered the public fray on Tuesday by declaring the prime minister was “so silly” to ban colleagues from the show pending the review. Truss, who is the leader of the Nationals, defined the ban as applying “until serious action is taken by the ABC to ensure the program behaves in a responsible way”. The government’s fury at the national broadcaster flows from the decision to allow former terrorism suspect Zaky Mallah into the live studio audience to ask a question of the panel on 22 June.
Asked why Joyce did not appear aware of the ban when he spoke to the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday morning, Truss said Joyce “maybe … didn’t interpret the decision the way others have”.
“He’s done the right thing, like [parliamentary secretary] Alan Tudge did the previous week and decided not to appear on the program because he couldn’t be assured that the ABC had in fact done anything to improve the way in which the program was put together and delivered to the public,” Truss said.
Joyce told Insiders on Sunday morning that he was planning to go on Q&A because he thought the ABC was “dealing properly now with the issue”.
The ABC board decided last week to give a formal warning to Q&A’s executive producer, Peter McEvoy, for not consulting senior management about the proposal to include Mallah.
The board also commissioned a broader review of Q&A by journalist Ray Martin and former SBS managing director Shaun Brown – which could take months to complete.
Martin entered the public fray on Tuesday by declaring Abbott was “so silly” to ban colleagues from the show pending the review.
In comments that have the potential to undermine the government’s confidence in the review, Martin said: “It’s clearly a political issue at the moment in terms of terror. I think we’ve already started looking towards the next election.”In comments that have the potential to undermine the government’s confidence in the review, Martin said: “It’s clearly a political issue at the moment in terms of terror. I think we’ve already started looking towards the next election.”
During a guest-hosting appearance on Seven’s Sunrise program, Martin said he thought everyone agreed it was a mistake to have Zaky Mallah live on air, “but the rest, I’m going to wait and see”. During a guest-hosting appearance on Seven’s Sunrise program, Martin said he thought everyone agreed it was a mistake to have Mallah live on air, “but the rest, I’m going to wait and see”.
Martin said the review would include an examination of Q&A programs during the previous government. “I suspect that Tony Jones was just as tough on the Labor government as he has been on the Coalition right now but I think a Bex and a good lie down might help,” he said.Martin said the review would include an examination of Q&A programs during the previous government. “I suspect that Tony Jones was just as tough on the Labor government as he has been on the Coalition right now but I think a Bex and a good lie down might help,” he said.
The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, was forced to withdraw from Monday’s program after receiving an instruction from Abbott just hours after Joyce had publicly recommitted to go on Q&A. Abbott refused to clarify on Tuesday whether the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was free to go on Q&A next week amid uncertainty about the details of a prime ministerial ban on such appearances.
Answering questions at a National Press Club luncheon on Monday, Joyce summarised his understanding of the prime minister’s ban on appearances: that it would remain in force until the ABC-commissioned external review of Q&A was completed – a process that could take months. The prime minister did not take a backward step from his strident criticism of the program for its “unacceptable and indefensible” decision to give a platform to Mallah, who was acquitted in 2005 of two terrorism offences but pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officials.
“He’s made an instruction that until the process of the review at the ABC is properly concluded he doesn’t want people from cabinet on Q&A. That’s the instruction,” Joyce said. “Malcolm [Turnbull] quite properly has been engaged in ongoing discussions with the ABC about exactly what they’re going to do to ensure that something like this never happens again,” Abbott said on a visit to a supermarket in Sydney on Tuesday.
But some reports suggested it applied to all frontbenchers, not just cabinet ministers. And Turnbull – who has previously spoken out against the idea of a blanket boycott of Q&A – has yet to comment on whether he will press ahead with a scheduled appearance on the program next week. “Now, there is an internal ABC process under way at the moment. It wasn’t appropriate for a minister [Joyce] to go on there on Monday night and I want that process to be concluded as quickly as possible.”
Abbott, on a visit to a supermarket in Sydney on Tuesday, reaffirmed his criticism of Q&A for allowing Mallah to join the live studio audience and ask a question of the panel on 22 June. In 2005 Mallah was acquitted of two terrorism offences but pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officials. Abbott brushed off repeated questions about whether he would permit Turnbull to fulfil his commitment to join the panel.
“What we saw a couple of weeks back on Q&A was simply unacceptable and indefensible,” the prime minister said. “What I’m not going to do is give further advertisement to a program which was frankly right over the top,” he said. “I’m just not going to give further advertisement to this particular matter.”
“It was unacceptable, it was indefensible and Malcolm [Turnbull] quite properly has been engaged in ongoing discussions with the ABC about exactly what they’re going to do to ensure that something like this never happens again. Now, there is an internal ABC process under way at the moment. It wasn’t appropriate for a minister [Joyce] to go on there on Monday night and I want that process to be concluded as quickly as possible.” Answering questions at a National Press Club luncheon on Monday, Joyce said Abbott had “made an instruction that until the process of the review at the ABC is properly concluded he doesn’t want people from cabinet on Q&A”. That process could take months to complete.
Asked a second time whether he would allow Turnbull to attend the program, Abbott said he did not want to further advertise the program – which could be interpreted as a tacit acknowledgement that the government-fuelled controversy has dragged on for too long. Turnbull – who has previously spoken out against the idea of a government-wide boycott of Q&A – has yet to comment on whether he will press ahead with the scheduled appearance.
“The ABC itself said that it was an error of judgment,” he said. “They then went on to rebroadcast it [on the Wednesday morning of the same week] and, as I said, I’m just not going to give further advertisement to this particular matter.”
A journalist said the ABC had apologised and asked the prime minister whether community sentiment had moved on. “Well, as I said, I’m not going to further advertise this matter,” Abbott replied.
The prime minister’s decision drew criticism from panellists on the Q&A program on Monday. They included Greg Sheridan, a senior journalist at the Australian newspaper and a close confidant of the prime minister, who said the government was “now in danger of making itself the issue”.The prime minister’s decision drew criticism from panellists on the Q&A program on Monday. They included Greg Sheridan, a senior journalist at the Australian newspaper and a close confidant of the prime minister, who said the government was “now in danger of making itself the issue”.
At the end of Monday night’s program its host, Tony Jones, said the program was “expecting” Turnbull to appear next week as scheduled.At the end of Monday night’s program its host, Tony Jones, said the program was “expecting” Turnbull to appear next week as scheduled.
Jones also thanked Buzzfeed Australia for listing the events that lasted less time than “Q&A-gate” including the Cuban missile crisis, which lasted for 13 days, and the political career of rugby league coach Mal Meninga, which, he said, ran for 27 seconds.Jones also thanked Buzzfeed Australia for listing the events that lasted less time than “Q&A-gate” including the Cuban missile crisis, which lasted for 13 days, and the political career of rugby league coach Mal Meninga, which, he said, ran for 27 seconds.
The ABC’s managing director, Mark Scott, said on Twitter that Abbott’s instruction denied Joyce the opportunity to discuss the newly released agriculture white paper “in front of a million people who watch the show”. Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, suggested the “extraordinary” ban was a case of Abbott engaging in “mind manipulation and his determination to shut down any debate which he doesn’t believe is in the interests of him and his political party”.
The ABC has already issued a formal warning to the show’s executive producer, Peter McEvoy, an action that may not have satisfied Abbott, who had publicly suggested that “heads should roll”.
Labor’s agriculture spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, suggested Abbott had another motive for the “extraordinary” ban.
“The Zaky Mallah incident is behind us. The ABC has acknowledged its mistake, it has apologised, it has been subject to an independent inquiry,” Fitzgibbon said
“Now this is not about Zaky Mallah, this is about the prime minister and his mind games – his mind manipulation and his determination to shut down any debate which he doesn’t believe is in the interests of him and his political party.”
Alan Tudge, the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary who pulled out of the 29 June episode in the immediate aftermath of the controversy, refused to be drawn on whether the ban was counterproductive and how long it should last.Alan Tudge, the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary who pulled out of the 29 June episode in the immediate aftermath of the controversy, refused to be drawn on whether the ban was counterproductive and how long it should last.
“I’ll leave that to the prime minister to inform us on that,” Tudge told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday. “But I think the Australian people though are much more focused on the important issues such as constitutional recognition, such as dealing with some of the other issues which we’re talking about.” “I’ll leave that to the prime minister to inform us on that,” Tudge told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday.
Abbott elevated the issue by telling colleagues at a joint meeting of the Coalition parties two weeks ago that Q&A had become a “lefty lynch mob”. Abbott elevated the issue two weeks ago by saying that Q&A had become a “lefty lynch mob”, demanding that “heads should roll” over the Mallah issue, and asking the ABC: “Whose side are you on?”
The prime minister followed that with a press conference in which he said millions of Australians would “feel betrayed” by the broadcaster’s decision to give a platform to Mallah. Abbott, who has pursued a series of changes to toughen national security laws over the past 12 months, asked the ABC: “Whose side are you on?” The ABC’s managing director, Mark Scott, responded by saying the broadcaster was “on the side of Australia” and said he hoped that “no one seriously wants the ABC to be a state broadcaster” like those in North Korea, Russia, China and Vietnam.
Scott responded by saying the ABC was “on the side of Australia” and said he hoped that “no one seriously wants the ABC to be a state broadcaster” like those in North Korea, Russia, China and Vietnam.
Several Coalition ministers and backbenchers have previously criticised the idea of a government boycott of Q&A.
The education minister and leader of the house, Christopher Pyne, said on 24 June that he enjoyed going on Q&A even though he agreed the program had a leftwing slant. “That’s just the way it is,” he said. “We could choose not to go on it but I think that is madness because I want the viewing public to hear the Coalition’s message because I think it’s the right message.”