Kitchen Cabinet presenter Annabel Crabb has been forced to defend Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s interview on the show after fans accused her of leading a ‘sycophant flaky play’.
The veteran ABC star faced a torrent of criticism even before Tuesday night’s episode featuring the Liberal Party leader aired, with some leftists expressing concerns Crabb will similarly ‘humanise’ Mr Dutton that she did with Scott Morrison.
The former prime minister, who was known for his tough image and tough immigration policies, appeared on the show in 2015 where he was able to boost his image as a family man by cooking ‘scomosas’ and a Sri Lankan curry. -lankan.
Now, just hours before the interview with Mr Dutton aired, Crabb felt compelled to defend her choice of interviewee in a lengthy Instagram post.
Kitchen cabinet presenter Annabel Crabb has been forced to defend Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s interview on the show after fans accused her of leading a ‘sycophantic flaky play’ (pictured together )
It comes amid reports that Crabb confronts Mr Dutton on the show, which airs on Tuesday night, over ‘racist remarks’ he allegedly made as the couple shared a slice of custard with brown butter and rum (photo)
She highlighted her pride in the show’s seventh series, which features a mix of home cooking and friendly conversation between her and frontline politicians, saying it’s the “most diverse ever “.
“Of course I was always going to interview the Leader of the Opposition if he was okay with it,” Crabb wrote.
“I asked the two main party leaders, and of the two Peter Dutton said yes. This is the alternate PM.
Crabb said she took “the same approach that I took in each of the 48 episodes that my team and I did”.
“I show up and bring dessert, and I ask the host about my host’s life,” she said.
“Sometimes viewers like them better at the end of the show, sometimes they don’t. The important thing is that viewers decide for themselves.
“That’s how things work in a democracy.”
The ABC stalwart revealed she will be taking a break from social media following the outcry.
Last week, Crabb faced backlash for describing Dutton’s politics as ‘muscular’ during a promotional interview for Kitchen Cabinet on ABC News.
An angry viewer tweeted, “I don’t need a sycophantic soap opera for Dutton to ‘reveal’ anything about himself. Every hateful word and action revealed everything I needed to know about him.
Critics fear Crabb is ‘humanizing’ Mr Dutton in the same way the show helped shape Scott Morrison’s image as a family man
Others criticized the ABC for hosting the show
Annabel Crabb (right) is under fire for featuring Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton (left) in a friendly interview on her popular talk show Kitchen Cabinet
Some viewers have even gone so far as to say that Mr. Dutton’s appearance means Kitchen Cabinet should be taken off the air.
‘Kitchen Cabinet should not be renewed for another season. Trying to humanize a politician who manipulatively pushes a no vote is not defensible,” one complained, referring to liberal opposition to the native voice proposal during of the next referendum.
Last week, Crabb defended herself against accusations that she offered her interviewees a “free ride”.
“I interview them in a different way than your Sarah Ferguson boot-on-the-throat variety, which is absolutely necessary for our democracy, but I also sometimes think that when you take a different approach, especially when you’re in the someone’s house, you’re polite to them, you’re not going to start throwing stuff at them,” she said.
“But if you make them feel comfortable enough, they’ll often reveal things about themselves that are actually quite interesting and essential to understanding them, and I think that’s certainly the case with the Dutton episode.”
His nuanced approach has done little to appease his staunchest critics.
A 2015 article, titled “Junk Food Journalism: Why Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet Is Toxic”, resurfaced following Mr Dutton’s next appearance on the show.
Amy McQuire, who wrote the article, accused Crabb of “crashing his way interviewing some of Australia’s most powerful people by coating their many acts of structural violence with sugar icing”.
“This insidious spread of propaganda, soft talk with hardline politicians who wield enormous power over the lives of the most vulnerable, is being sold as a fun, lighthearted look into the lives of the people we elect,” Ms McQuire wrote.
“But this taxpayer-funded sycophantic date with power will eventually make us all sick.”
“It completely abridges the debate and re-roots the perception that politicians are like us, while the people their policies hurt are not.”
Crabb defended his choice of interviewee, saying: ‘That’s the way things are done in a democracy’
Other critics went further, mocking an image of Crabb sitting smiling at a table next to Adolf Hitler.
It comes amid reports that Crabb is confronting Mr Dutton on the show over alleged ‘racist remarks’ he made as the couple shared a slice of custard with brown butter and rum.
Mr Dutton made the remarks in question in 2016, saying Malcom Fraser’s government in the 1970s made a mistake in resettling Lebanese refugees.
At the time, he defended the comments, saying that “of the last 33 people charged with terrorism-related offenses in this country, 22 of them are of second- and third-generation Muslim-Lebanese descent.”
The veteran ABC star admitted she was taking a softer approach with her show and didn’t want to engage in combative dialogue with her guests
‘I don’t see how there’s any way to see that other than it being a racist remark,’ Crabb told the Tory politician on Kitchen Confidential, according to news.com.au.
Mr Dutton admits he shouldn’t have made the comment and says he has already apologized to them.
Outside of MrDutton, the final season of Kitchen Cabinet will feature a wide variety of political figures, including National Party’s Bridget McKenzie and former Green and now Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe.
Kitchen Cabinet is currently airing on ABC and available to stream on iView.
