Hello and welcome to Insiders: G'day, this is Macca

AUSTRALIA All Over is the hope of the ABC.

THERE are moments when listening to Macca evokes the subversive pleasure that first got me hooked on radio, in the days when tuning in to pirate pop stations broadcasting from the middle of the North Sea was an act of rebellion against the supercilious BBC.

Against all the odds, Ian McNamara defies whichever ABC committee is responsible for enforcing groupthink, carrying on regardless, as he has done for more than 25 years. "Audience" is too colourless a word to describe Australia All Over's listeners. A sociologist might define it as a moral community: a group that derives a sense of common identity from sharing the same totem. Like Alan Jones, you are either for or against Macca: there is no sitting on the fence.

Australia's cultural faultline is neatly drawn on Sunday mornings: insiders have their TV show while outsiders listen to the radio.

Insiders use to pretend it, too, wanted to hear from real people. Every week they'd turn up with a camera at a place where ordinary people hang out -- a Fitzroy yoga class or Byron Bay book club, for instance -- to ask about Tony Abbott, David Hicks and Malcolm Turnbull, but not necessarily in that order.

It was a comic interlude, like the grave-digging scene in Hamlet, when Shakespeare would bring on some peasants between Ophelia's death and the king's soliloquy. It became clear that it just wasn't working in the week when we were waiting for Kevin Rudd to hand in his letter of resignation (he wasn't "knifed", Barrie Cassidy put Michael Stutchbury right on that one last week).

They sent Genevieve Jacobs to the Canberra Antique Classic Motor Club, where her question sounded like it had been thought up in the pub. If Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd were classic cars, what cars would they be?

Motor Club Member 2: "Abbott would probably be a Morris Minor man and Kevin might be something a bit more upmarket."

Motor Club Member 1: "I wouldn't bother restoring Abbott." Mercifully, the segment was quietly axed soon after that.

Radio, after all, is a better medium for normal people, by which I mean anyone who does not wake up with Fran Kelly and fall asleep with Ticky Fullerton. Journalists should talk to normal people as often as possible, ask open-ended questions and listen carefully.

Listening is Macca's great gift. During last year's citrus glut, he took a call from Ronnie, in Glen Innes, who sells oranges: "I set up stands in different places and that's how I make a quid . . . You meet a lot of lovely people."

"I bet you do," Macca replied.

"You really do," said Ronnie. "You wouldn't believe the amount of nice people there are."

No you wouldn't, not if you watch Insiders, where you will hear of the populist, xenophobic streak behind mandatory detention, and the anger stirred by shock jocks.

Macca suggested loading a truck with oranges in the Riverland and selling by the side of the road in Melbourne. "I reckon people would buy 'em," he said.

"And you'd probably have the council on you in about 30 seconds," said Ronnie. "Inverell and Mudgee and Glen Innes, they go out of their way. But they're not all like that, believe you me."

"Isn't that just typical of life in Australia," Macca said. "I mean, here we are worried about global warming in 20 or 30 years, but meanwhile it's hitting the fan with everything. I mean, just look around and look at all the problems, and the concentration seems to be on something that might happen in 20 or 30 years. And even if it does, what about the things that are happening now?"

If Macca still has Ronnie's phone number, Insiders should slip him some petrol money, and he could sit in the corner where they used to put Andrew Bolt. As he told Macca: " I don't usually talk politics, but I like Barnaby Joyce. He used to be a customer of mine."

"It would be nice to have an orange stand because you'd get to meet a lot of nice people," Macca said.

"The majority are nice people," Ronnie said, "but you don't hear their stories."

On second thoughts, Insiders should pre-record it, so they can cut that last bit out.