Q&A

Tonight's panellists
Germaine Greer - feminist author and commentator
Todd Sampson - the Gruen Transfer's Ad-Man
Belinda Neal - Labor Party MP
Cory Bernardi - Liberal Party backbencher
Janet Albrechtsen - opinion columnist

Youse southerners'll be settling down to watch now...

Who knows, it might be worth watching with Cory and Janet.

Regarding the Hey Hey Its Saturday Jackson send up on Red Faces, points to Germs, get angry about real shit. Yay. Brits critical of Aussies and racism in Aus because they can't play cricket.

Janet Albrechtsen - we should laugh more. It wasn't funny and only was looked at because of the furore.

Question about racism, gee what a surprise. Not sure if he means whitey's are racist or non whiteys - he's Sri Lankan I think so....

Carpe, I think JA is much prettier than you in those glasses.

Todd thinks that Australia is full of racists. How is that manifest asked JA.

Transcript will be interesting.

Make up your mind, Todd. Oh, good you're speaking for all those people who suffer racism.

Oh, it's subliminal racism, covert, not overt. Sure.

Blenda is talking about her experiences with racism, coming back to Aus in the 70s, speaking Italian and doing things like shaking hands which others didn't in the 70s. The 70s.

Germs talks about Anxious racism.

Thank God Germs didn't breed.

Aussies tolerate different races, but don't embrace their cultures... um, what exactly does that mean?

That's news, opposition is opposed to an ETS.

Oh, wait. Just Rudd's.

Gruen is a True Believer - he doesn't know much about politics, Australian politics, but he's a True Believer in AGW. Idiot.

Gruen doesn't understand politics. Shows he doesn't understand anything.

Nuke power. Gruen calls it Nucular power. RAOTFLMAO. It's not only George Bush who calls it that... he he.

Germaine thinks that we haven't done anything with nuclear power because we have been too scared. Shit. That's news to me.

Funny how Belinda Neal speaks about her personal life and her husband's infidelity and her handling of it and how we all grow from adversity... but nothing about her meltdown.

Germs knows all about raising children and their problems. Children are not born free.... She's right about kids being free to learn from their childhood mistakes, rather than being overprotected by their parents.

Janet's agreed with Germs about kid's overprotection and their lack of doing stuff.

Belinda says that kids are wonderful and can do anything.

Corey's with Germs and Janet. Learning about taking risks and being able to make decisions using their judgement.

Yawn
it's over

Next week:

Alexi Sale
Anthony Albanese
Christopher Pine
Deepak Gupta
Nikki Williams

Last week's transcript is here. Search for BASAK YILDIZ for the question from the Iraqi who Christopher flamed.

BASAK YILDIZ: Why is it that the Islamic country, Iran, is the threat to the peace in the world and not the Zionist? Is it America’s support of Israel, while hundreds of people are getting killed in Gaza and West Bank, everyday with the support of America. The Israel and Palestinian war has been going on for 61 years and we are not actually looking at what is actually happening and we're fearing about what is not happening? We're fearing about something that hasn't happened.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: It's become a familiar thing. I should perhaps preface this by saying that with Edward Said, the late professor Edward Said, I wrote a book about the rights of Palestinians and the way in which these have been negated by Israeli policy. But I know a lot of people in the Arab and Muslim world who are fed up with having the subject changed to Israel whenever human rights for them comes up. A very good example of this just last week in Tehran, where the government has an official Al-Quds Day, as it's called, the day of Jerusalem, where school children and others are paraded. It's a more or less compulsory demonstration to say they'll give their blood and their lives for Palestine and hundreds of thousands of Iranians turned up to say, no, we'll only give our blood for Iran, thanks. We're fed up with being told by the regime that they represent the oppressed of Palestine. That we can't talk, and they are having to shed their blood because the regime keeps on killing them for wanting to have a say in their own internal affairs. And a regime that does this and has just pulled off a blood stained military coup. It's overturned the results even of an already pre-determinedly fraudulent election that says that a woman's voice is worth that of only - sorry, it takes three women in a court against one man; that uses torture and rape as policies in prison and so forth. If you want a regime like that to have nuclear weapons, you're welcome, but you should say that's what you don't mind. Are you going to say that? Are you going to say you've no objection? That the real problem is the Jewish state? Come on, be serious.

BASAK YILDIZ: Sir - sir, you're - sir, the Jewish state doesn't have nuclear weapons. Is that - is that what you're saying?

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Well, now, I appeal again to the fair mindedness and intelligence of the audience. Did I say that?

AUDIENCE: No.

BASAK YILDIZ: No, but you say...

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Did I by - in any way imply it?

BASAK YILDIZ: No, but...

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: No. Did I not begin with a throat clearing, which I'll amplify if you like, about my long record of work about this, my defence of the Israeli dissidents who publish the news about Israel's illegal program and have gone to jail for it. I can refer you to all that, if you like.

BASAK YILDIZ: What...

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: My point was directed specifically to you.

TONY JONES: Yeah, okay.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: I said, "Does this, in your mind, make the destruction of human rights in Islamic countries okay or not?"

BASAK YILDIZ: No.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Good.

BASAK YILDIZ: No, it's not.

Then he goes on to flame out Aly.

And then this (Hitchen's replies and retorts are worth reading, too):

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Look, my one question is basically - or my one comment or passing comment is that so many times you've brought up women and Islam. I'd just like to correct that I've read the Qur'an and all Muslim scholars would agree with me that Islam gives women a lot of rights. We over and over give Islam women - in Islam, through the Qur'an, I may not say it through individuals who preach the religion but Islam, through the Qur'an, gives women a lot of rights and I need that to be heard. I need to have everyone to understand and hear that. I mean, I am a young Muslim woman myself. I sit before you. I have a voice and I can speak to you and I can look you in the eye and I do have my rights. And when I go to Iran - I'm actually Iranian, as well. So when I go to Iran I also have my rights. I need it to be heard that the Qur'an - the Qur'an, Allah, (indistinct) Allah, gives us our rights. People - individuals in countries and people who represent our religion may not and they may do the wrong thing to sort of stand in front and show us religion and preach us religion, but Islam does.

TONY JONES: All right. We're going to take that as a comment.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you.

TONY JONES: And a very passionate one. Okay.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Oh, no. Oh, no we're not. No, we're not going to take that as a comment. I can see your face. I can see your hair and I can you sitting there in the audience with young gentlemen. Don't you tell me you can do any of that in Iran.