It’s been three weeks but still the Zaky Mallah incident occupied airtime on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night – this time with a question from a 10-year-old boy.

The video question from Ashton Platt, a bespectacled youngster from Highbury, South Australia, asked whether he should be “afraid” of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s condemnation of the ABC following the controversial June 22 episode featuring Mallah, who was charged and cleared under terror laws in in 2005 but pleaded guilty to threatening Commonwealth officials.

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“I know I’m only 10 but Tony Abbott scares me when he attacks the ABC and tries to control what we see on it. Should we be afraid of his attacks on Q&A and the ABC – both things I love?” Ashton asked.

The Q&A panel featured a conspicuously empty space that had been reserved for federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull – absent due to the government’s ban on appearing on the program – and so a former Liberal parliamentarian on the panel answered the question.

John Hewson & Michael Ware respond to a question of attacks on free speech in #QandA and ABC http://t.co/eLiStP5xu0

— ABC Q&A (@QandA) July 13, 2015

Former federal Liberal leader John Hewson said he was staggered the program was still an issue, saying there had been fault on both the side of the ABC and Mr Abbott’s response in saying “heads should roll”.

“The first law of digging holes is when you get to the bottom you stop digging,” Mr Hewson said.

“I think we should draw a line in the sand and say we’ve both learned something from this.”

-AAP