Tony Abbott has labelled Q&A "a bit out of control" after ABC management was forced to apologise to the prime minister over an offensively-tagged tweet.
The already under-fire program displayed a tweet on Monday night which carried the handle @AbbottLovesAnal.
It prompted ABC managing director Mark Scott to send Mr Abbott a text saying sorry on Tuesday morning.
A written apology is also on the way.
Mr Abbott, who is spending the week visiting indigenous communities in the Torres Strait and Far North Queensland, said he had yet to respond to Mr Scott.
But it didn't stop him having a shot at Q&A and ABC management.
The program, which was widely criticised for allowing convicted criminal Zaky Mallah on air, was a "a bit out of control".
"I think it's important for the ABC not just to talk about ... tighter management control on that particular program, but actually do it," Mr Abbott told reporters.
Earlier in August the ABC board decided to move Q&A into its news division, prompting Mr Abbott to lift a ban on ministers appearing on the weekly program.
The change is due to take effect by next year.
The ABC insists the tweet was not displayed on purpose with a spokesman saying the public broadcaster regretted any offence it may have caused.
The apology came after Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull contacted Mr Scott early on Tuesday morning.
He described the latest incident as "a Groundhog Day moment yet again", a reference to the Mallah broadcast.
It was "another unedifying incident at Q&A".
"The tweet should obviously never have been put on the screen and the fact that it was underlines the need for better supervision of the program."
Labor's communications spokesman Jason Clare agreed anybody who saw the tweet would think it was offensive.
"It's important that steps are taken to make sure that something like that never happens again," he told ABC TV.
The ABC will be removing the tweet from any re-broadcasts of Monday's program, unlike repeats of the Mallah episode.
Q&A already is subject to an independent review by former SBS chief Shaun Brown and respected TV journalist Ray Martin.
Government frontbencher Greg Hunt believes the publication of the Twitter handle was deliberate.
"They can say it was a terrible accident, but why would you choose a tweet that says 'I prefer ones twitter feed to their biographies' - it's almost completely meaningless," Mr Hunt told radio 3AW.
"The substance of the tweet was not the reason it was chosen."
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