He criticised the views expressed by the two non-MP panellists, Randa Abdel-Fattah and Anne-Azza Aly, and said the publicly funded ABC is obliged to present more balanced views from the Muslim community. Liberal MP Alex Hawke says the "ABC let the team down by entertaining...conspiracies" on last week's terror raids. Credit:Andrew Meares Ms Abdel-Fattah described the terror raids as a "spectacle" and "conveniently timed" ahead of the government's "most draconian" national security legislation which is being introduced into Parliament this week. "You cannot help but feel cynical about the timing of these raids, the fact that it is whipping people up into a frenzy of hysteria, or war fever," she said. "It reinforced this wider narrative of Muslims as criminals ... and I'm very cynical about the government's decision to politicise these raids," she added.

Counter terrorism expert and academic Ms Aly said "all terrorism is theatre and all counter-terrorism is theatre, so yes, [the raids were] a manufactured spectacle". When contacted by Fairfax Media for a comment, Mr Hawke said "I thought the ABC let the team down by entertaining these conspiracies". A source said Mr Hawke's criticisms of the ABC were well-received. "There were a lot of hear, hears," the MP said. A spokesman for the ABC defended the program and pointed to the variety of panelists, which included the government's Justice Minister Michael Keenan. "We were confident when we brought them together that all of the panelists would be more than capable of putting their own case, participating in a vigorous debate and answering challenging questions; that's exactly what they did," said the spokesman.

The spokesman added that Q&A is a "significant component of Australia's vigorous democracy" and gives Australians the opportunity to debate national issues. The ABC is facing more funding cuts, in breach of the government's pre-election pledge not to cut funding to the national broadcaster, and it is possible that flagship programs including Lateline could be slashed. Tuesday's party room meeting was a marathon session in which the Prime Minister called for all Coalition MPs to share any views they held about the government's commitment to military involvement in Iraq to degrade the growth of Islamic State, also known as ISIL. Tony Abbott told his party room what was unfolding now has not happened overnight and the threat has been building for many months. "It is almost two months since the cabinet decided on a suite of measures including giving additional resources of some $600 million to the national agencies because we could see what was coming," the Prime Minister is reported to have said.

But the Prime Minister stressed that the government would not be distracted from its domestic agenda, despite the recent focus being on national security and foreign policy. In an unlikely coalition, Liberal senators Cory Bernardi, Warren Entsch and Ian Macdonald all voiced concerns about Australia being dragged into another never-ending conflict in Iraq. Senator Bernardi "sounded a caution" about a willingness of the public to accept another ground war. The Prime Minister responded by saying there were no easy decisions because of the "witches brew" involved with the Middle East. Mr Abbott said Australia's two goals were to prevent terror bases forming, which could be used to attack Australia, and to prevent genocide occurring. He reassured colleagues that the "heavy lifting on the ground" would not be done by Australia.

Victorian MP and former officer in counter-terrorism Jason Wood also questioned limitations in existing national security legislation in which a suspect being held under a preventative detention order cannot be questioned. Mr Wood has long held concerns about what he says are the shortcomings of the powers. Liberal Christian Porter who was state attorney-general in Western Australia also spoke and said state legislation acted as a complement to federal laws while Senator Brandis said the authorities had said they did not need the powers. Mr Wood produced documents from the COAG counter-terrorism review to argue that the authorities did need the powers. Loading

The matter has been sent off for review by Parliament's intelligence committee. Follow us on Twitter