Well, the ABC’s “experiment in democracy” is on as I type – and you can watch Q&A here on the web. I’m not so sure about “live and unpredictable” as all the questions are screened, and the only unpredictability might be if Tony Jones throws in a curly one (and he seems to have arrogated to himself the right to ask the follow up questions). I’m sure Kevin Rudd is quite capable of doing his bureaucrat speak thing completely unfazed for the next 45 minutes!
How soon before they flick the switch to vaudeville and get some clown to sit in the chair? After all, it might be worthy but so far, at least, it’s hardly compelling television.
Update: Next week it’s a panel, and actually – you gotta love the Ruddster. He’s pretty deft with this medium.
I’m live Twittering this as are a couple of other folks, Rudd is consistent if anything, with good presentation whatever the faults of the forum.
The clowns BTW are usually sitting on the Insiders lounge, Gerry, Andrew…….
Liveblogging!
Rudd played well. Done good. Didn’t raise a sweat. Too easy.
Sounds disturbingly like the next instalment will be a reprise of … Difference of Opinion! But with pollies and sms. Hopefully without the stoopid cartoonist.
We clearly now have a PM with a reasonable sense of humour. Hooray.
You’ll get your wish next week, Mark. The Mad Monk will be one of the panel.
I sent this question. Did it come up?
大老板，你喜欢白酒或者啤酒？
That was weird, two comments for the price of one click. Sorry, Mark, I’ve got no idea why that happened, perhaps my computer’s got hiccups.
Damn, I missed it!
People from Quinceland may remember that truly grovelling, snivelling moment of complete oblation in the late 70s/ early 80s when Bjerkoff’s state govt officially asked Her Maj how to pronounce “mall”. Since we were building one, but were also awful colonial dross who couldn’t talk proper. I mean, look at our Premier.
Anyway, in that spirit, I would have asked the PM “Sir, what is a Bogan? And can we have some clarifying legislative edicts?”
It was reasonable infotainment but the paen to Chairman Rudd at the end was a woeful idea. Fortunately can’t see a similar finale next week even with the mad monk but you never know.
I kinda liked that!
Aodaliya.
That’s apparently how you say “Australia” in Mandarin. One of three words I learned in Beijing, the other two being: Nihama, and Sheshe.
So, was it good? What actually happened? Was he online, or just being interviewed?
I may have left the point of this whole thread in my other pants.
I liked the Chairman Rudd thing too! Pity we didn’t get to see his reactions to it. It’s up on the Q&A website: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/
I thought one of the most telling moments was Rudd’s off-the-cuff comment that the Iraq invasion was a big factor in rapidly rising oil prices. I can’t recall the exact words but that was the implication. I wonder if he told GWB that. I guess its true. It’s a good fit for the ALP in opposition and Simon Crean courageously showing the way. And if you can blame rising oil prices on it too it makes for consistency.
It was great TV, LE. More than that. It was a great conversation – almost bloggish. (And it was plenty unpredictable, Mark! The camera operators certainly found it so.)
What Brett said and wpd.
See my update, wbb. I was writing while the Ruddster was ticking off reviews initiated etc. in the first bit.
jane, no probs, I deleted the double comment!
I liked the Chairman Rudd thing too…
I didn’t
I think I shall sue.
A reminder to the ABC re the SMS messages, we in WA can’t contribute via SMS when the show is delayed by 2 hours
PLease consider making such an announcement prior to the show starting, and by running a crawler whenever Tony mentions the number – heck even mention the number at the end of the Perth News Bulletin, I’ll bet there will be a lot of pissed off Perth punters who’ll blame Rudd for that 
Can anyone imagine the rodent doing what Rudd just did?
howard was ‘closed’ according to my Mum (who hated the Rat
)
I didn’t like the way Chairman Rudd boiled down all the civil and human rights abuse in China to just one word – Tibet. However , in fairness, he may have been jetlagged…or even have a brain condition aggravated by flight. He was asked about lawmaking while fatigued…and Tony Jones is a walking sleeping-pill imho.
Give me Jennie Brockie ( or Kim) anyday.
Tony Jones and Kevin Rudd …Mmmm…what ever DID happen to the twins who used to run Poland anyway?
Tell me when you will be mine,
qanda qanda qanda, qanda.
(sorry)
The gay marriage answers seemed a bit uncomfortable to me, especially where he was trying to make the point about his personal views being irrelevent. I’d like to hear a bit more about what exactly is involved in harmonising civil union laws across states that isn’t going to upset the christian lobby.
Still, it’s a format that is slanted toward sound bites and of the bits I saw of it, I thought he managed to avoid the obvious traps that kept showing up without ever adopting that execrable J-Ho parental concern.
David: cuando, cuando, … if it’s Spanish
Kim: I agree about the stupid use of a cartoonist on “Difference of Opinion” – seemed to assume the viewers were all too dumb to follow an argument without pausing for a titter. It was worse than an ad break. The cartoonist himself wasn’t necessarily stoopid.
Kevin Rudd was OK but not polished. I agree that his “Tibet” is just one instance in a wide panoply of human rights abuses in China, some of these were examined in twp ABC TV programs this week: dissidents in Beijing harrassed and jailed; residents shifted out of the way of the Three Gorges Dam; others include slave labour in jails, executions, harrassment of non-Beijing dissidents, etc.
One thing Mr Rudd emphasised was the methodical implementation of the policies they canvassed before the election. Is he cleverly showing that a Govt should never declare that some pledges were merely “non-core promises”? – to contrast with The Lying R****t
Is it just part of the steady-as-you-go, managerial, don’t-frighten-the-horses, Ruddster as benevolent CEO?
If so, what a contrast to the Whitlam Whirlwind from duumvirate onwards; or Hawke, Keating, etc. I’d not be surprised to find that this steadiness and purposeful seriousness (whether it’s mostly a facade or a glimpse of reality) is a big factor in his current popularity.
Not sure there was much unpredictability – what could be unpredictable? He, and all his peeps are smart enough to know the gist of the questions which will be asked. But it was a good alternative to the Footy Show. And plus, Tony Jones rocks.
Meanwhile, over in OppositionLand, Dr Nelson is savaged by a journalist:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/dr-nelsons-dog-day-in-gippsland/2008/05/21/1211182856245.html
The print version was even more slanted: they had a montage of four photos in colour, using cruel justaposition. In shopping street scenes:
1) Dr Nelson under a sign “Sanity”
2) Admiral Nelson under a sign “Reject”
3) HMLO under a truncated sign “what’s in your diary for the next six months?”
Someone at “The Age” enjoys his work
Just like a student paper at Uni, only more savage.
I reckon it was a serious mistake to have the Ruddbot on his own for this first instalment of the program. When they get the panel going, no-one will be able to get away unchallenged with the kind of soundbite spin that he got away with last night. Particularly the dross on public transport – he should not have gone unchallenged on claiming to be properly funding PT when it is receiving 5% of the funding that roads are getting in the next year. If it had been a panel, he would not have.
You’re a bloke, aren’t you.
Heh.
Was mightily impressed. As already noted, Ratty would never have had the guts to do that. I don’t think all the questioned were screened – at, least, I don’t think Rudd knew what was coming.Only glitch, I think, was the way he ignored the Aboriginal woman who was giving him a hard time.
btw, it seems one of the lumpenproletariat unemployed and cut off Newstart may have wreaked their revenge on Ratty by pinching the jewellery in the Wollstonecraft flat while Ratty & spouse were watching cricket in the West Indies. – Seeing footage of him watching cricket, I think he’s developed a tic in both eyrs.
Hope there’s a hurricane and he’s in it.
I just hope that Tony Jones was paying attention to the way the questions and answers worked. Especially how nobody thought it necessary to push for a “Yes or No’ answer. I think the crowd, from their reactions, understood that its often more complicated than that.
(Tony has really been annoying me with that lately. Especially when he tries it with the likes of Gillard or Wong. As if they’re going to fall for that.)
Did anyone else notice the similarity with Tony Blair’s approach to engagement? I think I’ve seen footage of Blair on British TV doing something very similar, except he was being grilled on Iraq and looking mighty uncomfortable.
For mine, it was ballsy stuff. He doesn’t have to put himself out there like that, and despite journalistic claims of supertight media management, he was taking questions on all topics. I was impressed.
I also loved the ending – the ABC taking the piss out of itself and its guest.
David Rubie: sorry!
I agree
qanda, qanda, qanda
For thems what missed it, it is now up for download @
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/vodcast/qanda_08_01_ep01.wmv
or
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/vodcast/qanda_08_01_ep01.mp4
for apple/iPod types
Re: Chairman Rudd ‘Mashup’ and Kevin ’07s reaction: I was in the audience and he loved it. He laughed pretty hard!
With regards to the overall show, it is a shame more time wasn’t allocated. They had picked out about 45 questions from the 200 or so submitted by the actual audience members, and asked those questions on air based on the way the show and conversation was unfolding (not everyone had the opportunity to ask these questions based on time constraints). In this sense, I wouldn’t say the questions were filtered or staged in any way, and the PM had absolutely no access to the questions beforehand. Having said that, the questions asked were in many respects cliché and centred around issues considered central to the ‘average aussie’, and were based on issues that have received a lot of attention in the media over the past couple of weeks, so it was obvious that they would dominate discussion.
Tony Jones really wanted to put the PM on the spot, and had we had more time, I am sure there would have been more pressing questions. It is amazing how fast 1 hour can fly by, and a lot of the debate had to be suppressed due to the limited amount of time, and the desire to address as many issues as possible within that timeframe. You can’t really expect a deep response (rather than a ’sound bite’) when you have such little time to discuss each issue.