The Abbott government is facing internal calls to give up a boycott of the ABC's Q&A program, with a backbencher warning it's a gift to Labor.
Several members of the Abbott government refused to be part of the panel for Monday night's program, leaving Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek the only federal politician.
Government members are incensed by the inclusion of former terror suspect Zaky Mallah in last week's live show and have criticised Q&A for having audiences and panels that are stacked against the government.
But Queensland Liberal-National MP Ewen Jones has urged his coalition colleagues not to turn their backs on the program despite his own misgivings about it.
"If you avoid the space, you cede the ground," he told ABC radio.
"We must be in there to provide a alternate point of view."
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to receive the report of a departmental investigation into the program on Tuesday.
On Monday night's show, host Tony Jones defended allowing Mallah to ask a question.
But he said Mallah would not have been allowed into the audience had the Q&A team been aware of an offensive tweet he had published about two female journalists.
Parliamentary Secretary Steven Ciobo called the explanation strange.
"So his tweets expressing sympathy for terrorist organisations, his tweets against me and others ... apparently none of that precludes him from being on the panel," Mr Ciobo has told the ABC.
Meanwhile the chief-of-staff to former Labor Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the government is right to hold an inquiry into the ABC's decision to allow Mallah on Q&A.
John Whelan, who also worked for ex-Justice Minister Jason Clare, wants the review to be extended into what all government agencies knew about Mallah's movements.
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