Before there was the Q&A boycott, there was the Alan Jones boycott.

It was 2012 and the talkback king was under fire for telling the Sydney University Liberal Club that the father of then-prime minister Julia Gillard had "died of shame".

Spooked by the social media fury, advertisers fled from the program. Labor MPs refused to be interviewed by Jones, with none appearing for at least six months (many have never gone back on the program).

Tony Abbott, then opposition leader, described Jones' comments as "wrong, unacceptable, offensive".