38. Q&A and student protest

Hi, I am Greg and given that it is budget night, I should grumble about the budget curtain-raiser, the alleged Commission of Audit.

But it is such a transparent political trick with its obvious ideological agenda and laughable methodology, it is really not worth grumbling about.

Instead I want to grumble about the condemnation and outrage that followed a group of students interrupting the ABC’s Q&A program last week.

Now Q&A is the weekly fix for those who need their political prejudices confirmed regularly, and host Tony Jones has achieved cult status as the controller of political egos.

But last week, a group of uni students with a concern for the future and fairness of tertiary education dropped a banner and chanted slogans until they were removed from the august ABC studios.

Now it is the nature of the beast that campaign slogans and chanting do not do justice to any issue, but did we really need Tony Jones’ patronising adjudication that the students were doing themselves no favours.

I’m sorry Tony, you might be comfortable being referee of a weekly political joust, but social change does not come from such staged and sterile discussion.

Q&A is as much about entertainment as politics, and the students were no less entertaining and a good deal more genuine than many Q&A’s panelists. And guess what, they did succeed in highlighting education issues in a way that their allotted subservient Q&A question would not.

And as for the claim that democracy had been restored when the ABC returned from its interlude of musical censorship, I’m sorry, I don’t ever remember an election for positions on a Q&A panel – otherwise we would be spared the weekly IPA rant.

And let’s not forget, many of the people who will be most immediately affected by changes to higher education are those currently at school and ineligible to vote. Democracy without representation? Hmmm.

At a time when political debate is dominated by corporate interests in the guise of budget auditors, and funding cuts threaten advocacy on behalf of vulnerable people, I don’t think we need self-righteous condemnation of those who put political change above political entertainment - no matter how annoying they are.

I am Greg, and I am grumbling – but not about student protest.


This Grumble can be heard online or by podcast.
First Broadcast: 13 May 2014