Well that went better than I thought it would. But still .....

My scoring:

Linda Burney interruptions: 1; prompts: 1.
Muhammad Yunus: interruptions: 0; prompts: 1.
The ex-PM of Denmark: interruptions: 3; prompts: 3
Paul Kelly: interruption 0 [!]; prompts: 1.
Josh Frydenberg: interruptions: 11; prompts: 1.

Total interruptions: 15.
Total prompts: 9.
And one "I'll take that as a comment", but from Frydenberg to Tony.

Muhammad Yunus has had a lot of trouble with a hostile Bangla government in the last decade, so he had to be pretty circumspect in his comments about Islam, especially given the murders of academics and many others for their comments there about it.

On the whole, it went okay. Some good questions too.

Next week ? We'll see.

Joe

Leoj, you cannot remove the egg on face, its to fried on, you cannot do that simply by offering more of your fictitious opinions as facts. You consider yourself the all seeing, all knowing one when it comes to all things left, that, you are not, always digging yoursrelf into a hole. After making a ridiculous claim about the Q&A panel, a few names of conservative polititions who have appeared on the panel in the last six months.

Arthur Sinodinos, Sussan Ley, Barnaby Joyce, Eric Abetz, Josh Frydenberg and George Brandis, there are many more names, to numerous to list. Were these people scripted as to what to say? Topics covered have been wide and varied from boarder security to gay marriage. According to you not the kind of topics Australian want discussed. Then pray tell, what do they what discussed> Given your political slant there must be lots of subjects that are taboo, what can we talk about?

After the ridiculous claim that ""no-one would ever believe that the ABC has any regard for what the public wants", you now move to claim the panelists are scripted, and its all orchestrated by the manipulative lefty producers. Nonsense like "Tony Jones with the hidden, faceless puppeteers behind his earphone, the audience questions they have already 'helped'(sic) draft, the adroit stage-management (how much of Q&A isn't scripted? LOL) and the sly 'random'(another belly laugh at that) twitter messages an artifice to interrupt the viewers concentration will counteract the apparent normality of this one, rather unique concession to providing a public service."

Leo, from what part of your anatomy did you extract those "facts" from? Otherwise, where is the evidence.

The only thing funnier than a Greens Eastern Bloc Joker, is a rabid right wing Hansonite trying to present the "facts"!

cont

cont

Leo's mob in power and Q&A would be replaced with the long and tiresome rantings of the squeaky voiced fearless leader, occasionally interrupted by the mournful sounds of Wagner!

"Sad news that a tour of Australia is too dangerous for a human rights campaigner."

And to think, Australia has hosted PM's and Presidents, Popes and pop stars, without security problems. And someone who 99.9% of the population have never heard of, has "security" concerns. Just a cop out.

"....And to think, Australia has hosted PM's and Presidents, Popes and pop stars, without security problems. And someone who 99.9% of the population have never heard of, has "security" concerns. Just a cop out."

It's the small percentage within the population that is the problem.

Hi Paul & Is Mise,

I would suggest that the proportion of Australians who are familiar with either the writings of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or at least with her proposed visit, would be far more than that of Islamist terrorists or would-be terrorists (who probably number more than we think).

If you checked out any uni campus, Paul, you would find that most know of her. The Muslim population would know of her. In fact, I would respectfully suggest that more Australians now of her, could recognise her picture, and/or would be broadly in sympathy with her views, than they would any jumped-up emir of sheikh or imam.

Yes, you might be right IF you mean what's left of the 'Left': they would generally have made every effort NOT to know her or anything about her. i.e. the standard religious approach to what believers regard as 'of the devil'.

It would be easy to do a survey, in the street, or at a uni campus - just ask people at random if they recognise pictures of: Ayaan Hirsi Ali; Lee Rhiannon; Bob Brown; Adele; Trumpf; and, say, Sir Henry Parkes.

Who do you reckon would come second last ?

Cheers,

Joe

I watched Q&A last night with some nervousness
I must admit. I thought that there might be some
sort of a disruption or demonstration. Much to my
relief there wasn't and things flowed along rather
well with some interesting questions. The editor
of "The Australian," was particularly impressive,
but then so were the others on the panel. Not
bad viewing all round.

I still don't quite understand why Ayaan Hirsi Ali
cancelled her Australian tour at the last minute.
She's used to "security" fears - she travels around
the globe under strict protection. She's been to
Australia before and appeared on Q&A previously -
and "security" fears have not stopped her in the
past. She is well aware of the type of attention that
her speaking engagements attrack and in the past she
has refused to be silenced. So what happened this time?

Security was given as just one of the reasons for her
cancellation. There was another statement that was
issued as well which stated:

"...She was left with no alternative following a
succession of organisational lapses on the part of the
event organisers - "Think, Inc"

Anyway, let us hope that she will return to Australia
sometime in the near future. In the meantime I recommend
that we all try to get hold of her latest book - "Heretic".