Queensland Election 2017: Radio host Ben Davis bans premier

A HIGH-PROFILE Brisbane radio host has banned Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, citing a matter of principle.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has continually declined an invitation to join Ben Davis during his afternoon show. Picture: Darren England/AAP

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PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk will have one less avenue to woo voters after 4BC’s talkback radio host Ben Davis banned the Queensland leader from appearing on his afternoon/drive show.

Davis said it was on principle that he would refuse the Labor leader access during the four-week election campaign because she had never previously accepted an invitation to be interviewed.

He will, however, happily chat with Labor ministers, such as Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, Curtis Pitt and Kate Jones, who had appeared on his show, in the lead up to the November 25 election.

“It got to the point where you would ask and she was unavailable or wouldn’t come on and we always said there was an open invitation for anytime that she would love to come on the program,” Mr Davis told The Courier-Mail.

“I know her coming or not coming on will not win or lose her the election, but it’s the principle.”

Ben Davis says Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is not welcome on his show during the election campaign. File picture

Mr Davis said it’s not as though Ms Palaszczuk had a set against 4BC, as she had appeared on Alan Jones’ talkback breakfast show on Tuesday.

However, as the host of the only talkback station on commercial radio which had a target audience in southeast Queensland, he was unsure why she knocked-back requests for interviews.

“I have no idea why. She was on this morning with Alan (Jones). I don’t think it’s personal,” he said.

Mr Davis, who started in the afternoon/drive timeslot in 2014 and appears on air between 2pm-5pm, said he had more luck getting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull than the Queensland Premier.

Mr Turnbull, though, only agreed to chat on the afternoon/drive show at the last minute.

“The Prime Minister’s office called just as we walked in the studio and were ready to go and we dropped everything to speak with him,” he said.

“We would have done the same thing for the Premier if that happened.”

It’s not as though Ms Palaszczuk or the Queensland Labor Party will not exist for the next four weeks, Mr Davis said.

“It’s doesn’t mean we are not going to cover what the Premier says and we may play a grab, but I won’t give her the luxury of coming on.”

In the latest Brisbane radio survey (July16 — Sept 23), 4BC sat second to ABC Brisbane in both the afternoon (midday-4pm) and drive (4pm-7pm) slots.

ABC Brisbane, with 4.9 per cent of the market share in the afternoon, nudged out 4BC (4.8) while it won the drive slot 6.7 per cent to 4BC’s 3.3 per cent.

A spokeswoman for the Premier said Mr Davis can choose who he likes to appear on his show and Ms Palaszczuk would never interfere in the editorial decisions of media organisations.

When asked why the Premier had not accepted one invitation since she came to office in February, 2015, the spokeswoman responded: “Premier Palaszczuk receives dozens of interview requests each day, and if she did all of them, then she would spend more time talking about being the Premier than actually o`ut talking face to face with Queenslanders.”

Queenslanders will go to the polls on November 25.

Originally published as Queensland Election 2017: Radio host Ben Davis bans premier