Federal Liberal MP Craig Kelly said ABC's Q&A program on Monday night "seriously overstepped the mark". Credit:Andrew Meares "If I was a terrorist recruiter I would take that program from Q&A and I would say 'look at this, this is the typical opinion, this is the Australian Broadcasting Network, this is what they believe, this is all a government conspiracy out to target a particular group of the community'," Mr Kelly said. "When that view is promoted into a mainstream view, that this is all a conspiracy between the government and ASIO, that this is all a beat-up and a Hollywood fabrication, that does feed into the narrative which increases the radicalisation of our youth. "I think the program on Q&A on Monday night seriously overstepped the mark." Mr Kelly's complaints follow those made by his colleague Alex Hawke who told the Coalition party room on Tuesday, that the ABC had dropped the ball with the program. He accused the broadcaster of airing inflammatory "conspiracy theories". His complaints were well supported by his government colleagues.

Liberal MP Alex Hawke says the "ABC let the team down by entertaining...conspiracies" on last week's terror raids. Credit:Andrew Meares A spokesman for the ABC defended the program on Tuesday and pointed to the variety of panellists, which included the government's Justice Minister Michael Keenan. "We were confident when we brought them together that all of the panellists 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. Mr Kelly said he was a supporter of free speech but believed the ABC has an obligation as the publicly funded broadcaster to be balanced and not stoke divisions. "I'm not saying they don't have a right to air those views, it's the way they were aired and the ways those views were given predominance," he said.

Several government MPs, including Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi, Liberal MP Brett Whiteley and Nationals MP George Christensen have used the terror raids to campaign for the burqa to be banned - views that Labor has said promotes division and intolerance within the community. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has urged people not to "fret" about a person's religion or clothing. Mr Kelly does not support banning the burqa and said "I'm sure Cory's big enough and tough enough to defend himself but its important at this time to make sure we concentrate on things that unite us rather than things that divide us, and any statement that pretends this is all a beat-up has the real potential to cause division within our society". Asked if he was an "ABC-basher", Mr Kelly denied the charge and declared "I love my ABC". But he said he and his colleagues had become concerned with some of the decisions taken by the ABC of late. It comes at a critical time for the ABC which is considering slashing major programs, including its flagship television show Lateline, as it prepares for more funding cuts.

Mr Abbott declared on the night before the election that there would be no budget cuts to the ABC or SBS but in the last budget, the national broadcaster was subject to an efficiency dividend pending a further review into back of house savings options. The government also axed the Australia Network operated by the ABC. Mr Kelly denied the government had broken a key election pledge and said an efficiency dividend was not the same as a cut to overall funding. In a swipe at the managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott, Mr Kelly said a good manager would not need to cut programs to meet the government's expected savings. Follow us on Twitter