It is rumoured that Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is under intense pressure to cancel his scheduled appearance on disgraced ABC panel discussion Q&A.
Despite the Abbott ban on frontbenchers appearing on Q&A, the ABC’s website still features Communications minister Malcolm Turnbull as a panellist on next week’s Q&A.
Agriculture Minister and Johnny Depp dog hater, Barnaby Joyce, did not appear on this week’s Q&A. His absence was noted and discussed by Tony Jones and the other panellists:
Abbott is still hysterically talking about Zaky Mallah’s appearance on Q&A. Yesterday he said: “It was unacceptable, it was indefensible, and Malcolm 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.”
Yesterday, Turnbull was asked what steps the ABC would have to take to break the boycott. According to Turnbull, the ABC must “demonstrate that it’s learnt from this error of judgment and that this program will be better run in the future”.
“We certainly expect that a program like Q&A would have to honour the same conventions of balance and fairness that news programs are expected to supply.”
It’s expected that a statement from the communications minister will announce whether or not he will be attending next week’s Q&A.
