We knew tonight’s edition of Q&A would more than likely be some pretty heavy television. The combination of senators present on the panel, and their opposing beliefs, seemed tailor-made for verbal conflict.

Still, the searing, intense gaze One Nation senator Pauline Hanson cast upon Labor’s Sam Dastyari when he spoke about his early childhood in Iran was chilling.

Discussing if a government of Hanson’s devising would allow a 5-year-old Dastyari to enter the country as he did 28 years ago, she latched on to the apparently baffling prospect that the man sitting next to her could be a Muslim.



It’s rough.

Fortunately, Greens senator Larissa Waters managed to break that God-awful tension. After Hanson claimed “I’m surprised, I didn’t know that about you”, Waters’ quip of “what, because he doesn’t have three heads?” was absolutely necessary.

Sprinkle in some praise for Sonia Kruger, and we’re back to the regular division between panellists. Still, that look. That bloody look.



Source and photo: ABC / Twitter.