In a fiery interview on the ABC's Insiders program on Sunday morning, Mr Turnbull told host Barrie Cassidy he had "lost the plot" after a series of questions about the government's attack on the national broadcaster. Fired up: Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Screen grab: ABC TV Prime Minister Tony Abbott said last week that heads should roll after the ABC allowed Zaky Mallah into the audience to ask Mr Ciobo a question on the government's proposed citizenship laws. Mr Turnbull said on Sunday that allowing Mallah into the audience was a security issue because Q&A was a "very high profile target". The Communications Minister made the remarks after Cassidy asked how permitting Mallah to join the audience was any different to allowing him to walk through a shopping centre.

"Are you pulling my leg? After the Martin Place siege, you are saying to me there is no security issue with putting Zaky Mallah in a live audience?" Mr Turnbull said. Malcolm Turnbull, right, pictured with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has declined an invitation to appear on Monday's episode of Q&A. Credit:Jesse Marlow "If you can't see that, I'm sorry. "Seriously, you've lost the plot there with all due respect. This is a high-profile audience, very high-profile target. This is a fellow that has threatened violence in the past, threatened to kill people, gone to jail for it." Barrie Cassidy.

Mr Turnbull said the ABC had undermined a legitimate debate about national security and proposed citizenship laws under which dual nationals involved in terrorism would automatically lose their citizenship. "In any discussion of national security laws, citizenship laws, counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency in Afghanistan, there is a big debate – is the measure counterproductive, will it create more problems than it solves? That's a legitimate point," he said. "Why would the producers choose the least reputable, most discredited, arguably one of the most dangerous individuals to put that view? "The answer, I suspect, is because, in a sort of undergraduate, playing at tabloid journalism style, they wanted to create the biggest shock and awe and sensation instead of running the program like a responsible current affairs program on the national broadcaster that, frankly, should do better." Mr Turnbull denied sending in investigators was interfering with the ABC's independence and editorial judgment.

He said the government was entitled to ask questions about how the decision to feature Mallah was made and "who knew what, where and when". "We are not questioning the editorial judgment in terms of free speech issues," he said. Also on Sunday morning, Mr Ciobo, appearing on Network Ten's The Bolt Report, said there was "a lot of anger" within the Coalition party room about the ABC and indicated there was a determination to correct its perceived political bias. "What's going on within the Coalition is the view that the ABC has effectively become an island," Mr Ciobo said. While acknowledging the government appointed the ABC's board members, Mr Ciobo said the broadcaster was not sufficiently accountable.

"There is no pressure from sponsors, there is no pressure from ratings, there is no external pressure in terms of the government being able to say we've got a problem with management and that person needs to go, so really as an organisation funded from more than a billion a year, the ABC sits as an island, unaccountable. "No one's after it being a state broadcaster, but people are after balance." Pressed repeatedly by host Andrew Bolt on whether the ABC was too big for a "healthy democracy" and should be cut on that basis, Mr Ciobo said there was "scope to find savings". "Ultimately what size it should be – that's a determination that's got to be made. "What's going on now in terms of the way it's become an island is unacceptable long term. There needs to be structural change and I'm confident that we're going to be able to achieve it."