Labor cancels Q & A gig
"I have made it clear that this is not a time for campaign analysis," the PM says in a statement, as a Senator is pulled from Q & A.
- Published by David Knox
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At about 1:30pm yesterday afternoon ABC confirmed with media that Labor Senator Mark Arbib would be appearing on Q & A last night.
But by around 4pm, Arbib was calling host Tony Jones to advise Julia Gillard wouldn’t let him participate.
Gillard had appeared just two weeks earlier, and proposed another forum last week when she couldn’t drag Tony Abbott to a debate.
But with the Independents looking for stable government, Arbib was forbidden from speaking publicly about the election.
“I have made it clear that this is not a time for campaign analysis,” the Prime Minister said in a statement.
“The focus of Labor’s ministerial team must be on providing stable and effective government and discussing Labor’s positive plan for the nation’s future.
“Consequently I have requested and Senator Arbib has agreed to not appear on Q & A . . . I have requested Labor backbencher David Bradbury to represent the Labor team on the panel.”
Jones told The Australian it was the first time in 3 years the show a political party had pulled one of its members off the panel.
Source: The Australian
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10 Responses
James (10:58am),
Q&A’s executive producer, Peter McEvoy said in The Age’s online article today that allowing Ms Gillard to choose a substitute panel member [David Bradbury] “would be a clear breach of the ABC’s editorial independence”. But yes, it would’ve been nice if Tony Jones explained that last night – at least Malcolm Turnbull’s jokes about Arbib were funny. 🙂
The PM said David Bradbury could only appear as a replacement if there was a Navy Boat backdrop to where he was sitting.
Arbib is certainly not a very popular man right now in the Labor party.
I thought David Bradbury has a lot to say, but I could see right through him.
How many times has JG mentioned “stable and effective government” in her press conferences in the last few days, trying to suck up to the Independants. Just because you say it doesn’t mean you have it. I voted Labor, I’m reconsidering if I made the right choice now.
The real question should be why didn’t the Q&A producers allow Labor’s replacement David Bradbury to appear. And why didn’t Tony Jones explain to viewers that the ALP had suggested a replacement?
Makes sense to me. The people have had their say (or non-say) and now it’s up to the pollies to try to sort out a government that will last.
A sign of things to come when the loser of the election forms government, no mandate for anything.
A minority Labour government propped up by 3 conservative leaning electorates.
I watched Q and A last night and just what does the PM have to hide, was she afraid of the questions that may of come his way, the show was just as good without him
I am in two minds about this – On one hand, i believe in democracy and free speech, but on the other, i feel that the media wields a disproportionate weight in the perpetuating of political debate. I know that the media is the conduit or vessel for the discourse, but as Tony Windsor himself commented, the media is more often creating something out of nothing – dig at Laurie Oakes ‘senior reporter’.
It may be seen as hypocritical of Gillard to pull Arbib from the forum, but it is a fragile status at the moment, and the media is way too manipulative a form, to risk further chaos. A tribute to the power of Q&A! I didn’t see much of 9’s election coverage with Arbib, but he is a contentious player, whichever way you look at him.