Shoe-throwing On 25 October 2010, former
Prime Minister John Howard had a pair of
shoes thrown at him from a member of the audience due to responses on his attitude to the
Iraq War. The shoe-thrower was subsequently removed from the audience. Although Howard seemed indifferent to the incident, it was criticised by both Prime Minister
Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott, among other members of Parliament from both the Government and the Opposition. The shoe-thrower, environmental activist
Peter Gray, died of cancer six months later; before he died, however, he asked the ABC to auction his shoes and the money to be donated to the
Red Cross. Tony Jones announced the auction on the show on 9 May 2011, saying: "Before he died he asked that the shoes, which we kept, be auctioned for charity and the money given to the International Committee for the Red Cross for its work in Iraq. Former Prime Minister John Howard has expressed sorrow at Mr Gray's death and endorsed this idea. So the shoes, which symbolise the their disagreement over Iraq, will now be used to provide practical help to people in Iraq." The auction was won by
Volley for $3,650.
University student protest The show was disrupted on 5 May 2014, when a group of university students began protesting against proposed higher education cuts. The group unfurled a banner over the back of the set and began to chant at
Minister for Education Christopher Pyne, before they were removed from the studio while the live broadcast was replaced with footage of a musical performance from an earlier episode. In the lead-up to the protest, Pyne was the subject of several questions regarding education cuts and was heckled by members of the
Socialist Alternative.
Zaky Mallah incident The
Zaky Mallah incident stirred great controversy and led to a boycott of
Q+A by the
Abbott government, after a former terror suspect was invited to ask a question of a minister from the live audience. Zaky Mallah had been convicted of threatening to kill Commonwealth officials in 2003, but found not guilty of terrorism offences in 2005. Prior to his appearance on the program, Mallah had
tweeted derogatorily and lewdly about two female
News Ltd columnists,
Miranda Devine and
Rita Panahi, mentioning
gang banging them. He was known to
Q+As editorial team, attending three shows as an audience member since 2011, and twice being rejected as a panel member, but they were not aware of the misogynist tweets; Jones said that he would not have been allowed on the programme had they known. Ciobo replied that he understood that the acquittal was based on a technicality, so would be happy to see the government remove Mallah from the country. Mallah later was directed to respond, saying "The Liberals now have just justified to many
Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join
ISIS because of ministers like him". Jones called these comments "totally out of order". The following day, the ABC published an apology for including Mallah on a live event, admitting to an error of judgement, and around a week later the
ABC board appointed
Shaun Brown and
Ray Martin to do an
independent audit of the show, and issued a formal warning to
Q+A executive producer
Peter McEvoy. ABC director
Mark Scott conceded the producers had erred putting Mallah on live television, but defended the independence of the ABC's editorial decisions and argued there is merit in platforming "views that run contrary to accepted public values" in order to "understand the root cause" of alarming actions. Following the incident, the ABC reported that it had received over 1000 complaints over its decision to allow Mallah into the audience. The decision was criticised by Labor deputy leader
Tanya Plibersek, and Prime Minister
Tony Abbott banned members of his
frontbench appearing on the program. He later offered to permit them if the show was moved from the ABC's Television section to News and Current Affairs. Substantially negative coverage of the ABC's conduct appeared in
News Corporation-owned papers, including
The Daily Telegraph and
The Australian. Other commentators defended the ABC, including Ray Martin,
Peter Greste,
Jonathan Holmes, and
Richard Ackland. In August 2015 the ABC moved the show from its entertainment division to the news division, which would subject it to more oversight and stricter guidelines.
Duncan Storrar Duncan Storrar asked assistant government minister
Kelly O'Dwyer a question on tax-free thresholds, asking why poorer people were not receiving similar tax relief from the Coalition government. He quickly gained widespread support as an embodiment for the 'battling Aussie'. The publicity from his question caused various media outlets to cover his life, with some outlets publishing allegations that he was a drug addict and that he had previously failed to care for his family. Storrar became traumatised as a result of his harsh media treatment. A crowdfunding campaign was started to buy him a new toaster, which played on O'Dwyer's remarks about depreciation treatment for small business, namely cafes.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied In February 2017, panellist
Yassmin Abdel-Magied defended
sharia law, arguing that Islam is "the most
feminist" of all religions. Some Islamic scholars have disputed this saying "they must comply with the laws of their country of residence without, at the same time, disobeying Islamic law."
Q+A Broadside On 4 November 2019, Q+A hosted a special show in conjunction with
The Wheeler Centre's Broadside festival of feminist ideas. The show aired content including swearing and discussions about violence. This led to hundreds of complaints being filed against the ABC about language and viewpoints, resulting in the ABC network opening an investigation into whether the show violated editorial standards. Panellists included
Mona Eltahawy; author
Jess Hill;
Nayuka Gorrie;
Ashton Applewhite;
Hana Assafiri; and host,
Fran Kelly. Some time later, after other questions and discussions, Grant asked that Gillies-Lekakis leave the studio. Grant apologised for not having ejected him directly after his question, saying "We can’t have people advocating violence, and I should have asked you to leave". After an argument with another audience member, the questioner was ejected from the studio by security. The ABC posted an explanation of the incident afterwards on the Q+A website: ==Reception==