What thinking Australians are thinking…
The real question about Duncan Storrar is how did the ABC find him, groom him and transport him to the studio to spring one of its dingo traps on the panel?
Geoffrey Luck, Killara, NSW
The ABC website is celebrating the crowd-funding response to Duncan Storrar, but it makes no mention of his volcanic temperament and history of recalcitrance. It’s past time for the ABC to apologise and make things right,
David Robertson, Red Hill, ACT
You have to wonder what form of “national hero” Q&A producer Amanda Collinge has in store for us on Monday.
Kim Keogh, East Fremantle, WA
Your report on the criminal record of the ABC’s latest celebrity Duncan Storrar highlights the ABC’s abysmal record (“Q&A ‘hero’ convicted of threats to kill”, 13/5).
In its eagerness to capture another gotcha moment against the Coalition, it has, not for the first time on Q&A, and despite its generous taxpayer-funded budget, failed in the most elementary task of checking its sources, a task that your reporters have not found beyond their more modest resources. The only mystery is why Coalition governments seem powerless to act to cleanse such Augean stables.
John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld
Jeremy Sammut (“Bad parents are the real problem”, 13/5) is spot-on regarding Duncan Storrar’s faux sob story on Q&A. It is a mystery how such a person, capable of working for a living, continues to bludge from other workers. Storrar’s son has dragged himself out of drug dependence. We all have a choice — Storrar chose the hard-done-by road.
Claire Jolliffe, Buderim, Qld
Duncan Storrar’s appearance on Q&A suggests the program learned nothing from the Zaky Mallah scandal of last year. Either they failed to check adequately (again) or simply hoped no one would dig deep enough to get the full story.
And the organisers of the GoFundMe campaign have similar questions to answer. At the very least, they should halt the campaign, divert the funds already raised to more worthy causes and offer refunds to donors who felt conned by Q&A.
And I hope new ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie is having a serious questions-and-answers session with the show’s producers.
Roger Wilson, Woodend, Vic
One thing is clear from the latest Q&A debacle is that Duncan Storrar was planted in the audience to gain cheap laughs and applause at the expense of Assistant Treasurer Kelly O’Dwyer. The failure to inquire about Storrar’s history of domestic violence and imprisonment, which might have provided some insight on the reasons behind his financial circumstances — together with the subsequent tweet by the Q&Aproducer that he was a “new national hero” — again exposes the clear agenda of the ABC.
And this one from me also made the cut in today’s Australian..
For all her attempts to intellectualise something that is pretty straight forward and prosaic, Andrew Bolt is right and Shireen Morris is wrong. I too am born here, have nowhere else to call home and therefore an indigenous native of Australia. Having watched Shireen Morris on Andrew Bolt’s program on Sky earlier this week, I couldn’t help but arrive at the conclusion that she embodies and epitomises all of the condescending, conceited and sneering traits of the hoyty, up herself, politically correct that Australians loath. In this respect she is very much the Peter Fitzsimons of her cause and like him, her lecturing, abrasive, divisive and badgering style will see their respective causes of Recognition and a republic defeated.
Jim Ball
Narrabeen