The fallout from QandAgate continues. Tony Abbott has ordered a ministerial boycott of Q&A, there’s an ongoing witch-hunt about the Zaky Mallah incident and ratings have plummeted. It’s not looking good for the political panel show.
Last night’s Q&A didn’t even make the Top 20 Programs list, according to OzTam figures. TV shows such as The Hot Seat, Have You Been Paying Attention? and Family Feud all had more viewers than the panel discussion.
Last week, an extra 230,000 viewers tuned into Q&A. Last monday, Q&A had 797,000 across the five major cities, up from 560,000.
During the program, Abbott’s decision to ban frontbenchers from appearing on the show was discussed. Federal Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce withdrew his appearance from the program. A spokesperson for Joyce told the ABC in a statement: “Given the ABC is undertaking an inquiry into Q&A, it isn’t appropriate for the minister to appear tonight.”
Greg Sheridan the government is mistaken to boycott #QandA @larissawaters says they are "flogging a dead horse" http://t.co/2T22Gtdqvx
— QandA (@QandA) July 6, 2015
Queensland Greens senator Larissa Waters said that Abbott’s decision was “flogging a dead horse”.
“Two weeks on and he is now issuing a decree that his frontbenchers aren’t allowed to come on the show. Clearly he is wanting to distract from talking about other issues. What a shame we don’t have Barnaby on tonight, we could have asked him about his Agricultural White Paper and why it continues to completely ignore climate change or that he seems to think marriage equality is decadent,” Waters said.
Conservative ranter, Andrew Bolt wrote this morning in the Herald Sun that “Q&A was quite boring last night without a Coalition MP on – a bit like the Christian not turning up to the colosseum to meet the lions – and the ABC should be alarmed.
“In fact, the various arm of this massive state-funded soap box of the Left have been thrown into attacking the Government, in yet another demonstration of the ABC’s reflexively Leftist groupthink.”
What did you think of last night’s Q&A? Did you watch? Tweet us @bandt
