IT WAS supposed to be the fight to end all fights, the greatest spectacle since Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao came to blows back in July, but ironically Kevin Rudd and Alan Jones’s showdown on the Q&A panel tonight was anything but.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd and conservative shock jock Alan Jones have clashed in the past but the pair seemed to be in an agreeing mood, laughing their way through the show and referring to themselves as “comrades”.
The Australian Financial Review political editor Laura Tingle and emeritus university professor Judith Brett also weighed in on the panel last night however it was obvious Mr Jones and Mr Rudd were keen to dominate the airtime.
The panel discussed everything from the controversial Adani project to Mr Rudd potentially being responsible for our fractured political climate.
Here are the issues the polar opposites agreed on.
ADANI
Mr Jones’s fiery radio persona came to light when one audience member asked about the Adani mine project.
The radio shock jock cried conspiracy on the entire $21 billion proposal, citing the government’s past with foreign political donations.
“There’s something very smelly about this that the federal Liberal government, the federal Labor opposition, the Queensland Labor government and the Queensland Liberal opposition all have got their hands up saying they’re going to support this entity,” he said.
“If Indian banks won’t lend this mob any money, and the Australian banks won’t lend them any money and the ABC, this station here has done significant and exhaustive work on the duplicitous behaviour of this Adani mob,” he added.
Mr Jones, who serves as the face for anti-Adani campaign posters, had plenty of supporters in the audience and was also supported by Mr Rudd.
“Alan and I have been searching for common ground for almost a decade now,” Mr Rudd said, before agreeing with the broadcaster on banning foreign donations.
“We legislated in 2008 to ban all foreign donations to all Australian political parties. The Coalition refused to support it on two occasions. They’ve been in office now for four years, for God’s sake. Ban foreign donations. Just do it,” Mr Rudd said.
The former PM also agreed with Mr Jones on why the government shouldn’t touch Adani at all.
“The thing I’d not be touching with a barge pole is this business Alan referred to before — that’s two things we agree on now,” he said.
“Be careful Kevin, be careful,” the shock jock joked before Mr Rudd decided to refer to him as “comrade”.
Mr Jones’s opinions on Adani didn’t just win him favour with Mr Rudd, he was also praised on Twitter, with some of his critics admitting they agreed with him.
‘MANY PEOPLE THOUGHT YOU WERE NUTS’
Despite the civilised nature of the Q&A panel, tensions ran a little high when an audience member asked what Mr Rudd thought of US President Donald Trump.
“I think the general consensus among anyone concerned with a public policy process, domestic or international, thinks he’s nuts,” Mr Rudd said.
“Kevin, I appreciated your foreign policy dissertation, but I find this extraordinary,” Mr Jones said.
“I’m sure many people thought you were nuts when you were the PM and many people most probably think Tony Abbott is nuts.
“I think the bloke has to be given more credit than he’s been given. It doesn’t help to call the American people stupid because they elected a bloke who is president.”
Tingle also somewhat agreed with Mr Jones’s views on Mr Trump.
“I think whether President Trump is nuts or not, he’s done us a bit of a service because
he is a bit nuts, he frees people from this sort of slavery to the idea of the alliance that I think we suffer from. We are so insecure in Australia, we’re always looking for the big brother and I think there’s been a quite profound change in the way policymakers and politicians in
Canberra have thought about foreign policy in the wake of Trump,” she said.
‘AN UNREMARKABLE REQUEST’
The polarising figures also agreed on it being a bad idea for the Turnbull Government to reject calls for a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice in Parliament.
Last week, the government rejected the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Mr Jones slammed the decision, saying it was simply going to “give constitutional recognition to what is already in place”.
“They don’t have to agree with them but they’d feel they had a role within the deliberations of the Parliament. I don’t think that’s very tough,” he added.
And it was a statement Mr Rudd agreed with, admitting the decision to reject it was an “insult to the processes of reconciliation that we’ve set up over a long period of time”.
“You heard it here first on ABC News — I’m on a unity ticket with Alan Jones — this is an unremarkable request,” he added.
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