When Jones interjected following a question on the government's projected return to surplus, Mr Turnbull said: "Of course you do. You have to defend the Labor Party, Tony." Malcolm Turnbull channelled John Howard in the interview: showing civility and patiently laying out his case. Credit:Q&A Jones said that Labor's promise of a return to surplus within five years was based on increasing revenue, to which Mr Turnbull replied: "I've never heard them explain it quite as well as you. You should do more work for them. You're a very good spokesman for the ALP. Anyway, there you go." Jones, in response, asked Mr Turnbull to "try and talk a little bit about the facts". An independent review of Q&A last year found the program was not biased to one side of politics, but cautioned Jones not to "overreach" in his remarks.

Asked why he was pushing ahead with a plebiscite on same-sex marriage even though he personally favoured a conscience vote, Mr Turnbull said he was sticking by the decision the Coalition party room made under Tony Abbott. Tony Jones responded by asking the PM to "try and talk a little bit about the facts". Credit:Q&A "I am the PM but I'm not the dictator," he said. "Some people like the idea of prime ministers that ignore their colleagues. I don't agree with that. I'm a strong believer in traditional cabinet government and that means compromise." Battling a bad cold, the PM faced a blizzard of hostile questions from audience members in Brisbane. Credit:Q&A

Mr Turnbull slipped up early in the episode by mentioning "big cuts" to hospital funding in the Abbott government's first budget. The Coalition has always maintained that the $57 billion reduced hospital funding to the states over a decade did not count as a "cut" because it refers only to a reduction in spending growth. Is all compassion just a sham? Some would have you believe so. An Iranian refugee detained on Manus Island for three years asked the PM why he could not come to Australia. Credit:Q&A Mr Turnbull quickly tried to correct himself, saying it was "actually not true" to call the changes cuts. The Prime Minister again reiterated that the Coalition would not outsource any part of Medicare's operations, despite a Labor scare campaign claiming it would seek to privatise Medicare if re-elected.

The government had considered outsourcing some of Medicare's back office payment functions, but has now ruled that out. "I'm saying to all Australians unequivocally, as PM, that no part of Medicare that is delivered by Government today will be delivered in any, by anyone else in the future," Mr Turnbull said. "We will modernise it but we will do so within government." 'Give me three years' When asked why his government planned to cut tax rates for big businesses, including foreign companies, Mr Turnbull stressed that this would not kick in for eight years.

Australians should vote based on the tax cuts flowing to smaller businesses over the next three years and could "chuck" him out later if they don't support the tax cuts for big business, he said. "See, the big companies would only get a tax cut under our proposal three elections away and eight years away," he said. "So what you're voting on, if you regard your vote as being ... for the next three years, I'm asking for a three-year renewal of my government's job serving you." An Iranian refugee, who said he has been detained on Manus Island for three years, asked Mr Turnbull in a video question why he could not come to Australia. While acknowledging the government's policy of offshore processing was "harsh", Mr Turnbull said it was essential to preventing the people smuggling trade restarting.

"None of us have hearts of stone," Mr Turnbull said. "All of us understand how harsh it is, our policy is in terms of its impact on particular individuals ... [but] the people smugglers are out of business. "They would love to get back into business. They are itching to get back into business, believe me. And every now and then they test us out. But we have kept our policy firm. "We have had no unlawful arrivals, no unauthorised arrivals, no people smuggling expedition successful for well over 660 days. It is a very long time." Loading