Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The inclusion of Mr Zaky Mallah in the live audience on Q&A last night was a very, very grave error of judgement on the part of the ABC. Mr Mallah was a very known quantity. He had served a term of imprisonment for threatening to kill ASIO officers. He had been charged with threatening suicide attacks and preparing for terrorist attacks in that context, although had been acquitted. He had travelled to Syria in the pursuit of what he described as 'jihad'. His social media presence is vile, abusive and violent. He is a very, very known quantity. It beggars believe that he was included in a live audience, whether it is on the basis of what he might say, given his clear track record of intemperate and violent language, but also, just as worryingly, from a physical security point of view. Surely we have learned to take threats of this kind, to take people like this, extremely seriously. The idea that that there was no physical security checks on that audience, or that this man was allowed into it, is extraordinary.

The honourable member asked me what I have done. I have spoken to the managing director and expressed essentially the views I have just outlined here and I have been in touch with the chairman of the ABC to the same effect. I have asked the managing director to make sure that security arrangements are appropriate for the live audiences at the ABC. I am grateful to the Minister for Justice for facilitating the Australian Federal Police to assist the ABC in making sure that their arrangements are absolutely correct and appropriate to protect the live audiences, the guests, the production team and so forth in the studio.

The ABC board have a statutory duty to ensure that their news and current affairs are accurate and impartial. That is their responsibility under the act. The ABC board have established an external review into Q&A—they have done a number of these into other parts of their coverage—and that will look at the whole gamut of issues relating to Q&A: audience composition, choice of topics, choice of guests and objectivity balance. That is absolutely appropriate. The ABC has to be seen to be accurate and impartial. It is the board's responsibility to do it and the government, the public and the taxpayers expect them to carry out their statutory duty.

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