Immigration minister calls for more cancellations after ABC's axing of Yassmin Abdel-Magied's program
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has come out firing at the ABC, calling for more employees to be dismissed saying the axing of Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s television show on the ABC was a “good start”.
“One down, many more to go,” he said on Ray Hadley’s 2GB radio program on Thursday morning.
Hadley and Mr Dutton were infuriated by an exchange on Monday's episode of Q & A, before the Manchester bombing, between host Tony Jones and visiting physicist Lawrence Krauss on the likelihood of Westerners becoming victims of terrorism.
"The real people who are in danger from Muslim terrorists are in the Muslim countries," Krauss said.
"I suppose, if you're a young black American, you're more likely to be killed by a policeman," Jones replied.
Mr Dutton, a regular critic of the ABC, told Hadley "there's a cultural problem at the ABC and the board needs to deal with it".
"Tony Jones, who is obviously a well-credentialed, experienced journalist - his behaviour in that instance, I think is a disgrace," he said.
“You can muse about it and carry on, the reality is as we’re seeing now victims as young as eight, those families who have allowed their children, young children, teenage children to go to a music concert as all of us have done over a long period of time, travel out to a public place, go on a bus, go on a train, whatever it might be.
"Those people, those victims of that crime and those families that are left behind, frankly I think they’re the people and their voices should be heard, not the voices of some academics or people that seek to get their face on Q & A."
“I actually think there is a fundamental problem with the ABC, particularly around Q & A, the composition of the audience, the selection of these people on the panel and the direction it’s given by Tony Jones. You’re right, you’ve raised my blood pressure.”
His comments follow the axing of Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s national ABC program, one month after ABC vowed to stick by her following her controversial Anzac Day Facebook post.
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ABC made the decision that Australia Wide would not be renewed for another season as part of a staffing restructure.
Abdel-Magied had hosted the program since 2016 which showcased various cultures around Australia.
The 26-year-old was ridiculed after she told Australians to spare a thought for those on Manus Island and Syria, rather than the Anzacs.
“Lest We Forget (Manus. Nauru. Syria. Palestine),” Ms Abdel-Magied wrote on Facebook before quickly amending the post.
A petition was then made to have her sacked from the ABC, however they promised to stand by the controversial host.
Earlier this week she told students at Sydney Writers Week that she had been treated unfairly.
“Who is anyone to tell me what it means to be Australian?” she said.
"Somebody asked well, another dude wrote a whole article about how Anzac Day is problematic, what do you think about that…Why is he allowed to say what he thinks and I’m not — I don’t know.”
