Abbott’s Q&A boycott: The trouble with treating voters and ministers like idiots - Women's Agenda

Abbott’s Q&A boycott: The trouble with treating voters and ministers like idiots

No sooner had I finished reading Phillip Coorey’s opinion piece in the Weekend Financial Review, did I read the news that Barnaby Joyce had pulled out of ABC’s Q&A program tonight. He had withdrawn his scheduled appearance because the Prime Minister Tony Abbott has banned federal ministers from appearing on the show. 

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a spokesperson for Barnaby Joyce, who earlier on Sunday had confirmed he would appear, made this comment. “The Prime Minister has communicated that he does not want any frontbencher to appear on Q&A,” the spokesman said. “Barnaby was told this tonight and apologised to Q&A that he would not be able to appear.”

The opening lines of the Financial Review’s political editor’s his deft analysis of Tony Abbott’s handling of equal marriage were ringing in my ears. Phillip Coorey began:
“A key reason why Tony Abbott and his government ran into so much trouble in the wake of the 2014 budget was because the Prime Minister treated voters like idiots.
It was plain that the budget was laden with broken promises, which in itself angered voters. What entrenched that anger was the Prime Minister’s denial that he had done any such thing. Instead, he told voters they should have read the fine print; that his overarching promise had been to repair the budget and, therefore, anything goes.
It took the best part a year and the self-described “near-death experience” in February this year for the Prime Minister to publicly acknowledge the fault.”

Tony Abbott’s imposed boycott of Q & A is another consequence of “terrorist sympathiser” Zaky Mallah’s appearance a fortnight ago. Abbott was and is livid at the ABC for what many have described as a dire error of judgment. Abbott suggested “heads should roll” and said the national broadcaster ought to be ashamed of itself.

Thousands and thousands of words have been written, exchanged and reported following Mallah’s inclusion on the show and they have focused on citizenship, terrorism, radicalisation, censorship and free speech. Every way you look, without question, murky territory drowns this topic.
You would be hard-pressed to find many thinking Australians who believe an individual like Mallah ought to be afforded a wide audience but, equally, given the prescience of radicalisation how can we ignore those views? The Saturday Paper’s editorial is pertinent here in highlighting the danger in doing just that.

“Mallah is abusive and unlikeable, but that does not detract from the point he made during the program, one he is supported in by counterterrorism academics: that the government’s treatment of marginalised people in the community can serve to radicalise those people.”

The Department of Communications inquiry into the matter has now been finalised, the ABC board has issued the executive producer with an official warning and an independent review of the show is underway. Barnaby Joyce himself praised the ABC for “properly dealing” with the issue yesterday morning

But none of this, it seems, has appeased the prime minister. Instead, he has issued a boycott. And that decision keeps Coorey’s words about Abbott treating voters (and his own colleagues) like idiots alive.

This government has a propensity for shutting down conversations it doesn’t want to have. About stopping boats. About the treatment of asylum seekers in detention. About human rights. About terrorism.

That strategy might have garnered them some small wins along the way but how it is a sustainable long-term communication strategy? Come election time?

Q & A is one of the only regular forums where voters have an opportunity to directly ask their elected representatives about their views. In a public setting. On a variety of topics. The fact the show consistently attracts a million viewers is indicative of the fact that is an attractive proposition to quite a few Australian voters.

The prime minister is entitled to dislike the ABC and Q & A to his heart’s content. He is entitled to criticise the show as much as he likes and, of course, he’s entitled to avoid it altogether, as he has done so studiously for several years. But he isn’t entitled to prevent his senior ministers from doing so. They might be his frontbench but they are our elected representatives and in a democracy showing up to answer questions isn’t an discretionary. Treating us – or them – like idiots isn’t going to win any votes. Hasn’t Tony Abbott learned that lesson yet?

×

Stay Smart! Get Savvy!

Get Women’s Agenda in your inbox