Sunday, February 3, 2013

On Qanda


QandA returns to TV today, and I think its worth taking some time to talk about this show divorced from the specifics of a single episode. I'm not going to lie, I missed it pretty hard; there was a point in January where I started rereading my QandA tweets from last year to try and recreate episodes that I have seen.

Everyone has a favourite QandA moment and mine is definitely this.


This clip encapsulates so much about what I love about QandA. For all the discussion of marriage equality in this country there has been surprisingly little direct conflict between the two sides. One side talks about rights and equality, the other tradition and 'family'. They hold events and press conferences and obliquely answer similar questions.

But right there, on national TV, the two sides of this generation's civil rights struggle were in direct conflict, and Penny Wong used it to reveal the fundamental cruelty of opposing marriage equality and the indignity of seeing the love between two gay people as lesser. For all the posturing and speeches and even regardless of the motion voted down by parliament, to my mind this was the epicentre of the marriage equality debate in this country.

Moments like these justify my compulsive QandA watching. But the truly brilliant moments of QandA only come every so often, I genuinely think the show is great for a number of reasons.

For one, it is also wholly participatory; the ability of the general public to watch and ask questions of the panel gives it an accessibility that I think is the secret of its success. I also am of the opinion that the fact that it is live as well gives it an electrifying feel to it and I simply cannot watch it on repeat.

The Twitter feed is important too, though my grandmother hates it with a passion and only checks it to see if I got a tweet on. I tweet heavily for the show because it has a respect for the medium of Twitter, and an understanding that a larger and larger part of our political discourse is happening online. Where on other shows the twitter feed seems superfluous and self-indulgent, on QandA it adds to the experience of watching it, it doesn't feel like a passive activity at all.

I think the main reason that I watch, though, is because it is important. QandA is the beating heart of Australian politics. In the course of an hour it manages to not only reflect, but to truly represent the political discourse of that particular week. It is a space that allows a diversity of views and opinions to comment on the society that we live with and engage with the contested ideas of the state of our country and what it should be. It is everything that question time was envisaged to be, but with an ability to comment upon broader issues within Australian society.

There is a reason that being on the show gives a panellist a certain level of gravity in the political dimension; to be picked means that you represent a voice in Australia that deserves to be heard. There is a reason that both major political parties send their best performers every week, they are always the MPs who are most calmly able to articulate their parties' positions and policies. There is a reason that I think that it is significant that Tony Abbott has not been on QandA for several years.

Whereas the prime minister goes on the program roughly once a year, Abbott has not been on the program since 2010 despite the fact that there has been a standing invitation ever since. This reluctance to engage in the epicentre of Australian political discourse is unfortunate and it should be scrutinised. Every press conference should include a question asking when he will appear. The Labor party should be making hay of this, every time a member of the government goes on there should be an acknowledgement that Tony Abbott is not there. Anthony Albanese should have a pithy little line that gets on the news about it. There should be hashtags. There should be memes.

Tony Abbott should not be able to go to an election without having made at least one appearance on the show that embodies political debate in this country. If there's one thing that I want out of QandA this year it is the sight of Tony Abbott answering directly the questions of the Australian people.

As for what else is discussed, we'll have to wait and see. I believe that is all I have time for, see you next week (or whenever I next feel like writing something).

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