DHAKA: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has told his cabinet to boycott a popular talk show on the national broadcaster.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC) was criticised after a former terror suspect was allowed on live television show Q&A two weeks ago, reports bbc.com

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has cancelled his Monday night appearance, according to local media reports.

Joyce's office cited the Prime Minister's order for why he cancelled his appearance, local media said.

"The Prime Minister has communicated that he does not want any frontbencher to appear on Q&A," a spokesman for Joyce told the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Q&A program has become a lightning rod for debate in Australia about national security and freedom of speech.
Citizenship

The ABC last week conceded it was wrong to let Sydney man Zaky Mallah appear live on the program to ask a question.

In 2005, Mallah was convicted of threatening to kill government officers but acquitted of terrorism charges.

From his position in the Q&A audience, he confronted Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Steven Ciobo about the government's plans to strip dual nationals of citizenship if they supported terrorism.

 Ciobo, who was a panel guest, told Mallah he was pleased to be part of a government "that would say that you were out of the country".

Mallah angrily replied the government had "just justified to many Australian Muslims in the community tonight to leave and go to Syria and join [Islamic State] because of ministers like him".

The ABC show allows audience members to put questions to a panel of figures from various sides of Australian political and social life.

High-profile politicians regularly appear on the programme.

BDST: 1000 HRS, JULY 06, 2015
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