Oh God what a bunch of nobodies. If they can’t get big names each week, then maybe tighten the series. It needs a more political focus.
Further, I need to start a tally on how many “Indigenous” or “Muslim” “representatives/community leaders” are on this show in a year…I’m feeling that the representation is way out of proportion. And I just can’t imagine why ONLY those ethnicities and backgrounds are over-represented…
It’s refreshing not to have political guests on occasionally, especially big names like Martha Wainwright, Mem Fox and the director of the festival they’re broadcasting from. Yes they’ll talk politics but not from the party machines.
Why do they have to be broadcasting from a festival (and thus supposedly providing the basis for which to invite these guests who have no prominent public image in Australia?).
Uwotm8
I can confidently say 98% of Australians, at least, would not know who Mem Fox is.
Regardless, if you disagree with that - an “acclaimed children’s author” is not well placed to answer the sort of public policy questions this show is built around.
I’d say the reason for having it in Adelaide is because they’ve said they’d like to have the show in different parts of Australia so people from those places can participate.
The theme of the show is art, culture and activism so it does make sense to have it coming from one of, if not, the biggest arts festival in Australia. And the guests are probably not that well known because they are people involved in activism, art and culture rather than being celebrities.
Mem Fox is the most notable in that bunch and many people who have children or have grown up reading her books would know her. I can remember one of her books my sister had, a long time ago.
Out of the others I know who Ursula Yovich is because I have an interest in Australian television series and I know who Kim Williams is but not the rest.
But what’s the point of touring around the country when you attract the same snobby left-wing chattering class that you get when the programme is broadcast out of Sydney? Surely the idea of moving around is to have representation of different views.
Why is the self-proclaimed theme, never one based on other policy areas? Why isn’t there a liquor licensing, gambling and shooting episode?
You’re very obtuse when you refute my point about Mem Fox - I know her books. I’ve read them when I was younger. Doesn’t mean I have the foggiest who she is.
Well you should read more than just her books. She has often been in the newspapers. Maybe you’re isolated from that, way out west.
I’m quite sure these have been covered in the past, maybe not a whole episode on these particular subjects but they may have formed part of an episode. There has been an episode where they’ve discussed violence related to alcohol, coward punches and the Lockout laws in NSW. There has been a whole episode with Nick Xenephon where they discussed the impacts of gambling in pubs and clubs, gambling problems im society and the reforms he is trying to implement. There has been talk of gun control when independents have run on the platform of loosening gun control and recently the stink about changing the laws to allow certain semi automatic weapons to be purchased.
But they are never themes as I said. They are sporadic, individual questions. This show heavily invests in issues which form the base of only one side of politics.
Oh, well maybe not every different part of Australia is welcome to participate, then. You’re right though, we don’t read newspapers in WA anymore; as a state with a very young median age, we’ve moved on to other technologies. Perhaps newspapers are still read more so by old fogies in NSW that like their NewsCorp NRL news and Home and Away reviews in one package.
Well that’s a ridiculous statement. Newspaper websites are five out of the top ten biggest sources of news in Australia, by far.
December (ranking) January (ranking) - Monthly change - %
news.com.au 3.284 (1) 3.674 (1) 12%
smh.com.au 3.001 (2) 3.532 (2) 18%
ABC News Websites 2.604 (3) 2.952 (3) 13%
Daily Mail Australia 1.941 (5) 2.391 (4) 23%
ninemsn News Websites 2.128 (4) 2.296 (5) 8%
Yahoo7 News Websites 1.376 2.081 (6) 51%
The Guardian 1.609 (6) 1.858 (7) 15%
The Age 1.586 (7) 1.790 (8) 13%
BBC 1.454 (9) 1.637 (9) 13%
MSN News 1.410 (10) 1.596 (10) 13%
So, erm, why would you say we’re “isolated from that, way out west”…?
Does JBar think we don’t have the internet in Western Australia? 
Because you’re three hours and three decades behind us on most things. 
I assume you don’t look at the Sydney and Melbourne news websites which cover news about what is happening in the east where these people you say you’ve never heard of, would feature,
I guess on that silly east-coast-centric logic London is 11 hours behind you and New York 15 on most things. And I guess those that still binge on mid 80’s soaps like Home and Away are really the ones three decades behind.
As for your assumption, that’s clearly not based on fact, considering I’m practically the only person on this media-orientated website that actually links back and discusses Fairfax reports. Fairfax doesn’t publish in WA. 
You keep mentioning that soapie as some sort of marker but in Perth it’s probably more popular that in the east.
H&A is the top rating show in the timeslot behind ABC News in Perth. It has more viewers in Perth as a percentage of the population than in Sydney. The same is true for Neighbours in WA.
A marker? No, you’re the one saying WA is 30 years behind the rest of Australia (and therefore this somehow invalidates my criticism of the panel on Q&A this week). I’m saying, don’t criticise me for supposedly not reading widely enough and thus not knowing who Mem Fox is (how ridiculous considering the breadth of media I dissect on this site), when you, personally, are obsessed with 80s soaps and thus more likely to be 30 years behind the times than I am.
Capiche? 
[quote=“Firetorch, post:115, topic:608”]
No, you’re the one saying WA is 30 years behind the rest of Australia
[/quote]That was a joke, mate. You guys are so touchy about being so far behind the times. Maybe Q&A and your new progressive state government will help you catch up.
You’re mistaken, the liberals have actually left government. 
That’s Liberals who are certainly not small “l” liberal. 
Oh, well maybe that’s the case with your NSW Liberals recently headed up by the very religious right in Baird…
It’s more the federal level that’s being controlled by the far right because they are only hanging on to power by the skin of their teeth.