Once again, Alan Jones confounded his critics as he dominated the Q&A set Monday night by embracing causes that did not fit his reputation.
Who knew he was against the death penalty? Certainly not the majority of the Q&A audience who had never listened to him but hated him anyway. “It’s barbaric, absolutely barbaric, and if we had a death penalty here, Lindy Chamberlain would be dead and she was innocent. I find it just incomprehensible that these people can’t yield to pleas for clemency.
“Well, you do what you like, but we gave you a billion dollars when you were hit by the tsunami. We gave you a billion dollars. At every turn we’ve tried to assist you people,” thundered Jones.
He was roundly applauded by the studio audience. A viewer tweet, “I hate that feeling when I agree with Alan Jones,” probably summed up how many felt.
His tirade on coal seam gas would earn the admiration of the most strident Greens. And if the Liberal MP on the panel, Jamie Briggs was hoping for unconditional support from the conservative Talk Titan, he was soon to be disappointed as Jones chased him down a rabbit hole.
When Q&A host, Tony Jones asked Briggs about his position on coal seam fracking, here’s what followed.
JAMIE BRIGGS: Well, it is a State Government issue ultimately but, you know…
ALAN JONES: Sorry, Jamie, no, no, no, no, no. The Federal Government has to sign off on it.
JAMIE BRIGGS: That’s true. That’s what I was about to…
ALAN JONES: The Federal Government has to sign off on it. It’s not a State Government issue. They can go mad but you can stop them going mad.
Without a sensible answer, Briggs gave this one …
JAMIE BRIGGS: Sure and, look, it’s a – at the risk of disagreeing with Alan, because apparently we always have to agree with Alan, according to some, this is an issue which is difficult to get – well, we’re always told we have to agree with you. I mean, that’s the…
TONY JONES: Who told you that?
JAMIE BRIGGS: Well, the ABC usually.
TONY JONES: That wasn’t on your talking points tonight, was it, by any chance, please agree with Alan Jones?
Jones had plenty to say to the Labor representative on the panel, Chris Bowen too. On balance, no one could honestly have accused him of bias.
Fellow panelist, comedian Corrine Grant was astounded by the variety statistics Jones could quote off the top of his head exclaiming, “Alan has brought out so many numbers now, I’m waiting for somebody to yell out “Bingo!”
The trio of Jones, Grant and Australian Super Chair, Heather Ridout were informative and entertaining making the two politicians, who contributed very little to the debate prefering to score cheap points off each other, look very ordinary.
Ms Ridout summed it up best saying, “But, you know, if I hear more of the squabbling and rubbish, I feel like I’ve been years wanting to form the Normal People’s Party and I’m really getting close to it. Really getting close.”
Peter Saxon