Q&A (Australian talk show)
| Q&A | |
|---|---|
 Adventures in democracy | |
| Presented by | Tony Jones |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 9 |
| No. of episodes | 279[lower-alpha 1] (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | Ultimo, New South Wales, Australia |
| Running time | Approximately 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel |
ABC ABC News 24 (2010–2015), Australia Network (2011–2014) |
| Picture format |
576i (PAL) 16:9 DTV |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original run | 22 May 2008 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Q&A is an Australian television program, broadcast on ABC hosted by news journalist Tony Jones. It is similar to shows like Question Time on the BBC and Questions and Answers on RTÉ.
Format
The program generally features a panel of five public figures, usually including politicians from each of the major federal parties (Labor and Liberal) as well as minor party politicians, media personalities and celebrities, answering questions provided by viewers and the studio audience. The program is broadcast live (in the eastern states) on ABC TV and online, in front of a studio audience. From October 2010, Q&A is also simulcast live on ABC News 24, allowing it to be viewed live across the country.[1] When Federal Parliament isn't sitting, the show can be heard on Radio National.
The program is broadcast from the ABC's studios in the Sydney suburb of Ultimo. Anyone wishing to be in the audience can fill in a form on the program's website, which as well as asking for contact details, asks some questions relating to the applicant's political views to help "select a diverse and well-balanced audience".[2] Q&A is occasionally broadcast from other cities, with three shows being broadcast from other countries (Indonesia, India and China).
History
The program premiered on Thursday, 22 May 2008, at 9:30 pm on ABC TV. The program contains closed captions within its broadcast signal.
In 2010, Q&A moved to Monday nights and received a full season of 40 episodes.[3] From 26 April 2010, Q&A introduced a Twitter feed; selected tweets discussing Q&A live are displayed on screen.[4]
Virginia Trioli has filled in for Tony Jones whilst he was on break.
Notable episodes
On 25 October 2010, former Prime Minister John Howard had a pair of shoes thrown at him from a member of the audience due to responses on his attitude to the Iraq War. The shoe-thrower was subsequently removed from the audience. Although Howard seemed indifferent to the incident, it was criticised by both former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, among other members of Parliament from both the Government and the Opposition. The shoe-thrower, environmental activist Peter Gray, died of cancer six months later; before he died, however, he asked for his shoes to be auctioned off and the money to be donated to the Red Cross.[5][6]
The show was disrupted again on 5 May 2014, when a group of university students began protesting against proposed higher education cuts. The group unfurled a banner over the back of the set and began to chant at Minister for Education Christopher Pyne, before they were removed from the studio while the live broadcast was replaced with footage of a musical performance from an earlier episode. In the lead-up to the protest, Pyne was the subject of several questions regarding education cuts and was heckled by members of the Socialist Alternative.[7]
Panellists
Criticism
The Q&A program has been criticised by some News Corp Australia papers in a long running and widespread campaign against ABC management and programming for being overtly left wing in the views expressed by its guest panellists, the nature of the questions asked by audience members and the failure to disclose identity and/or political affiliations that some audience members asking questions of the panellists may hold. Criticism has been made in particular that the program presents "a distorted view of Australia".[8] During an episode aired on 9 April 2014, guest panellist Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton claimed Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt had abused a fair skinned indigenous woman and that he was a "fool who believed in race theories".[9] The host Tony Jones made an apology at the end of the following week's episode of Q&A in which he relayed that "Professor Langton publicly said that she does not believe Mr Bolt is a racist, although she profoundly disagrees with and disapproves of his views and statements on Aboriginality. She apologised to him for her comments and, as a result, the ABC also apologises for broadcasting her remarks."[10]
Guests
The most frequently-appearing panellists on Q&A, as of 9 March 2015 (not including the digitally-streamed pilot show) are listed below:[11]
| Name | Role | Appearances |
|---|---|---|
| Malcolm Turnbull | Liberal | 21 |
| Christopher Pyne | Liberal | 20 |
| Tanya Plibersek | Labor | 20 |
| Barnaby Joyce | National | 16 |
| Bill Shorten | Labor | 16 |
| George Brandis | Liberal | 15 |
| Joe Hockey | Liberal | 13 |
| Penny Wong | Labor | 13 |
| Janet Albrechtsen | The Australian | 12 |
| Julie Bishop | Liberal | 12 |
| Craig Emerson | Labor | 12 |
| Graham Richardson | Labor, Sky News Australia | 12 |
| Sophie Mirabella | Liberal | 11 |
| Greg Sheridan | The Australian | 11 |
| Chris Bowen | Labor | 10 |
| Greg Hunt | Liberal | 10 |
| Christine Milne | Greens | 10 |
| Tony Burke | Labor | 9 |
| Kate Ellis | Labor | 9 |
| Germaine Greer | Author | 9 |
| David Marr | The Guardian Australia | 9 |
| Kelly O'Dwyer | Liberal | 9 |
| Judith Sloan | The Australian | 9 |
| Amanda Vanstone | Liberal, ABC Radio National | 9 |
| Tony Abbott | Liberal | 8 |
| Lindsay Tanner | Labor | 8 |
Notes
- ↑ Excludes a webcast-only pilot episode.
References
- ↑ Q&A goes live across Australia on ABC News 24, ABC TV Blog, 22 October 2010.
- ↑ "Join the Audience of Q&A". ABC. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
- ↑ "ABC: 2010 Highlights". Knox, David. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
- ↑ "Q&A Hot On Twitter". Knox, David. Retrieved 14 April 2010.
- ↑ "Cancer claims John Howard shoe thrower, Peter Gray", The Daily Telegraphy, 10 May 2011
- ↑ "Man who threw shoes at John Howard dies of cancer", Herald Sun, 10 May 2011
- ↑ "Q&A hijacked by protesters, Anna Burke praises Christopher Pyne". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 May 2014.
- ↑ Henderson, Gerard (5 April 2014). "Taxpayers funding Left ABC agenda". The Australian. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
- ↑ "The ABC's Q&A apologises to Andrew Bolt for 'racist' slur", Herald Sun, 17 March 2014
- ↑ "Q&A Transcript, Monday 17 March, 2014". Q&A, ABC. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
- ↑ All programs, Q&A, ABC TV
External links
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