Laundering Peter Dutton in the Kitchen Cabinet

The pros and cons of the 'alternative' political interview

I once gave a keynote address at a function for which Annabel Crabb was the MC. She was brilliant. Enviably, effortlessly accomplished. She was funny, asked good off-the-cuff questions, and made everyone feel comfortable. I’d give my right arm to have that sort of skill.

What follows is about journalism and Annabel Crabb’s new series of Kitchen Cabinet.

“I mean, the potato thing has really taken off, right?” “The Potato Head stuff. Yeah.”

Crabb is right in saying, as she did the other day, that political journalism should be about more than confrontational grilling of our elected leaders, that there should be room for an alternative approach.

It is fair to say that her attempt to do this, the ABC series, Kitchen Cabinet, draws a mixed response. Crabb justifies her approach in the program by saying that “if you make them feel comfortable enough, they will often reveal things about themselves that are actually quite interesting and key to understanding them…”

I don’t think the revelation of…