"It's clearly a political issue at the moment in terms of terror. I think we've already started looking towards the next election. Ray Martin co-hosted Sunrise on Tuesday and discussed the Q&A review. "I suspect Tony Jones was just as tough on the Labor government as he is on the Coalition right now." Deputy Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce withdrew from an appearance on Monday's episode of Q&A after Prime Minister Tony Abbott instructed him not to appear. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is considering whether to maintain a scheduled appearance next week. Martin told Channel Seven's Sunrise program he could not believe government ministers were boycotting the program.

"It's so silly to do it," he said. "I would have thought Barnaby Joyce should have said, 'I'm not a member of the Liberal Party, I'm a member of the National Party, I can do what I like' and go and do it." Ray Martin has revealed he was involved in filming a child recovery operation in Spain in 1980. Credit:Angela Wylie Martin's comments were criticised by Coalition senators James McGrath and Ian Macdonald, both critics of the ABC.

An ABC spokesman said Martin was chosen to conduct the audit because "he is independent and the public perceive him to be". "That doesn't mean he can't express an opinion," the spokesman said. "He made it clear that his final view will be shaped by an orderly audit of previous programs. His comments related more to the boycott than to the program itself and everyone has an opinion on that." Martin is conducting the review, which is expected to take up to three months, with former SBS managing director Shaun Brown. Mr Abbott declined to comment on Tuesday when asked if he would allow Mr Turnbull to appear on next week's episode.

"What I'm not going to do is give further advertisement to a program which was frankly right over the top," Mr Abbott said. Nationals Leader Warren Truss said the decision to boycott the program was made by the government's leadership group on the most recent sitting day of Parliament, June 25. Mr Joyce is a member of the leadership group yet he said he would appear on Monday night's episode of Q&A only hours before withdrawing on Sunday. Asked why Mr Joyce did not appear aware of the ban when he appeared on Insiders on Sunday, Mr Truss said "maybe [Mr Joyce] didn't interpret the decision the way others have". Mr Truss said ministers were boycotting the program because they "couldn't be assured that the ABC had in fact done anything to improve the way in which the program was put together and delivered to the public" since Mr Mallah's appearance. Follow us on Twitter