The election time eps of Q&A are always a wild time. Basically, it’s a free pass for the audience to throw rotten tomatoes at the candidates until they submit or resign in shame – an essential part of democracy.
There was Q&A’s big gotcha moment – showing a video question from a detainee on Manus Island – but Turnbull also took a little bit of a battering on the big issue for progressives at this election: same-sex marriage. He fielded a question from a mother of a gay son who demanded to know why he won’t just legislate for it like Labor have promised:
.@TurnbullMalcolm Why are you not amending the law within Marriage Act? #QandA #ausvotes https://t.co/sjSuycRvZS
— ABC Q&A (@QandA) June 20, 2016
Turnbull’s angle? Yes, he understands that most of Australia is likely in favour. He is in favour himself. But he also says that he isn’t ‘a dictator’ and can’t renege on party policy – seeing as the Coalition had already committed to a plebiscite before he knifed Tony Abbott.
Though we all know the real reason why he can’t legislate. It’s probably not about lofty and highfalutin ideas about democracy and giving the people a vote. It’s way more likely that backbenchers like Cory Bernardi and George Christensen would bloody riot if he did.
Source: Q&A.
Photo: Q&A.
