Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the ABC will likely agree to the prime minister's wishes to have the controversial Q&A program moved to a separate division.
Tony Abbott has banned his ministers from Q&A following the appearance of convicted criminal Zaky Mallah who was allowed into the live studio audience and to direct a question at a government frontbencher.
Mr Abbott has indicated he'll lift the boycott once the broadcaster's news and current affairs division takes responsibility over the program.
But Mr Turnbull said Q&A was a long way from being the most important issue affecting Australians.
"I'm hopeful that the circumstances that caused this ban to arise will never occur again. So I hope this will just be just a little bump in the road out of which everybody will take something away to their benefit," he told ABC TV.
Mr Turnbull said the Mallah incident was a shocking error of judgment which the ABC had acknowledged.
He said there was a strong body of opinion within the ABC for a long time that Q&A should be in the news and current affairs division.
"Well look, the ABC have made it pretty clear they're going to do that," he said.
"Most people would be rather surprised that Q&A, which is self evidently a current affairs program, was not in the news and current affairs division already. It makes sense to move it in there."
Although banned from appearing on Q&A, Mr Turnbull instead appeared on the ABC's 7.30 Report on Monday night.
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