Barnaby Joyce has been booed by a hostile ABC crowd when speaking about why he opposes the Voice to Parliament, on a chaotic first night for new full-time host Patricia Karvelas.
A member of the public questioned Mr Joyce as well as filmmaker Rachel Perkins and independent MP Kate Chaney about whether Australia was ‘mature’ enough to hold a referendum about the Voice to parliament.
Mr Joyce described the upcoming referendum as ‘probably one of the most divisive things that has come into my area in political history’ on the QandA on Monday night.
‘You’re asking two people who were born in the same hospital, went to the same primary school, went to the same high school, living in two houses beside one another in a regional town. That one apparently one has access to two fields in the federal parliament and one has access to one,’ he said.
Mr Joyce seemed unperturbed about the booes from the crowd.
As the former Deputy Prime Minister was finishing his answer, he was cut off by boos from the audience.
Host Patricia Karvelas jumped in to subdue the crowd, asking them to be ‘respectful’ to Mr Joyce’s answer.
‘When other people out there hear [that], it just resonates why they’re angry,’ he finished.
Ms Karvelas then went on to ask Mr Joyce if whether Voice is valid as the Constitution rules that specific laws can be made for Aboriginal people.
‘But even those laws, PK, are brought forward by a parliament elected by all Australians …’ he said, before being interrupted by Ms Chaney.
The pair went on to argue and speak over each other about the legality of the proposed Voice and whether it would be taken to the High Court for half a minute.
‘Of course, you can’t say it won’t go to the High Court because we want the rule of law to apply to everything. We don’t carve things out and say the rule of law rule doesn’t apply to that,’ Ms Chaney argued.
As Mr Joyce was gearing up to respond, Ms Karvelas cut off the bickering pair, moving onto the next topic.
Earlier in the night an audience member made a strange remark about the Commonwealth Games.
The woman, named Joy, asked if Victoria’s cancellation of the Commonwealth Games last week signalled ‘the end of conquerors deciding Australia’s future’.
Panellist James Heappey – the UK’s Armed Forces Minister – initially ignored the ‘conquerors’ comments, and spoke about sport in general.
So the questioner tried again, saying: ‘The original concept of the Commonwealth games is the Empire Games … So how does someone achieve an empire?
‘They conquer it, and then these games are at the pleasure of the King and to celebrate the King using all the conquered countries to compete against each other.’
Patricia Karvelas got off to a bizarre start as the new host of Q+A with an ABC audience member making the bizarre claim the Commonwealth Games exist for the ‘conquered’ to compete for the pleasure of the ‘conquerors’
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The renewed focus of the question prompted Mr Heappey to defend the Commonwealth, the Games and his nation.
‘The Commonwealth has countries in it now that were never part of the British Empire,’ he said.
‘I was in Togo a couple of months ago. They joined the Commonwealth because they want to be part of a club of nations bound by friendship and shared values and nobody is compelled to send a team to the Commonwealth Games.
‘People do because they enjoy the opportunity to compete internationally in the game labelled ‘the friendly games’.’
Daniel Andrews made the decision to cancel the Commonwealth Games – due to be held in regional Victoria – last week.
The state premier claimed the cost of the Games – originally forecast to cost $2.6billion – had spiralled as high as $7billion.
Q+A panellist James Heappey (pictured) – the UK’s Armed Forces Minister – defended the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Games after bizarre question on Q+AKar
Karvelas was hosting the show after it was announced that Stan Grant had permanently stepped away from the role, two months after he went on leave following racial abuse.
The ABC’s news director Justin Stevens said Grant, 59, will continue to work on new projects for the national broadcaster.
‘We want to do all we can to support Stan and ensure he continues to play a major role in Australian media,’ Mr Stevens said on Monday.
‘He has the ability to lead our media toward a kinder and more constructive conversation. In Wiradjuri ‘dyiraamalang’ means a teacher and leader.
‘Stan Grant, a proud Wiradjuri man, is both of those things and I’m looking forward to seeing what he does into the future.
‘Patricia Karvelas has been doing an outstanding job as fill-in host and we’re delighted she has agreed to continue in that role.’
Stan Grant (pictured) has permanently stepped away from his role as host of ABC’s Q+A, two months after he stepped down following racial abuse
Grant remains on leave with no return date, an ABC spokesperson said.
The former Q+A host had announced in May he would be stepping down after he was racially abused over a panel discussing colonialism before King Charles’ Coronation.
The ABC received more than 1,000 complaints for its allegedly ‘disrespectful’ May 6 Coronation coverage, which linked the British monarchy with the dispossession of Aboriginal people since 1788.
In the wake of the coverage, Grant said he had been subjected to ‘relentless racial filth’ with viewers targeting him because he is Indigenous.
