The Veruca Salt of Australian politics, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has officially gotten his way – and has lifted his ban of Coalition MPs appearing on Q&A to celebrate.
The Ctrl + z of Abbott’s party room boycott neatly follows yesterday’s landmark decision by the ABC – moving the program from its Entertainment division to its News division.
The move caused weeks-long tensions between the Abbott Government and the ABC to cool considerably yesterday – from calling the ABC a “lefty lynch mob” after airing its controversial Zaky Mallah episode in June, to giving Aunty a “pat on the back” today.
Levels of *smug* were shamelessly peaking at today’s presser to announce the decision.
In Hobart today, Tony Abbott praised the editorial shift. “At last we’ve seen a bit of common sense after the notorious Q&A program of some weeks back,” he said.
“Look I’m pleased that they’ve accepted what the government sought. I’m pleased that they have finally agreed to do what their chairman said he wanted to do a few weeks ago, and I’m looking forward to Coalition frontbenchers reappearing on Q&A.”
While ABC’s shift of Q&A from Entertainment to News won’t officially occur until the end of 2015, erasing the MP boycott “could happen straight away,” according to Tony Abbott.
Yesterday, ABC claimed the decision “should provide the program with greater operational and cultural alignment.”
Will Abbott’s dummy spit and “pat on the back” for the ABC cause the Days Since Tony Abbott Has Been On Q&A counter drop from 1816 to zero? For the sake of an on-air gaffe, we can only hope.
Via SMH.
Lead image by Indranil Mukherjee via Getty Images.
