Australia has so far been unsuccessful with begging Indonesia to spare the lives of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, but if Julie Bishop could do one thing to save them, would she do it? The Foreign Affairs minister was asked if she would go topless if it would save grant the Bali Nine ringleaders clemency.

Bishop was a guest panellist on the special all-female episode of ABC’s “Q&A” on Monday, where host Tony Jones was temporarily replaced by Annabel Crab. The episode also featured “Bad Feminist” author Roxane Gay, Youth Without Borders Yassmin Abdel-Magied and feminist author Germain Greer.

When an audience member asked what they thought of the increasingly popular “Free the Nipples” social media campaign in which women, including teenage girls, pose topless to combat the taboo around exposing women’s breasts, the discussion turned to women going topless. Crabb asked Bishop if she would be willing to do it, but the affairs minister said the most radical she could do was to type in emojis online.

“It’s not something that I’ve ever actually had the desire to do online,” she answered. “I’m quite adept at my emoji language and that’s about as radical as I get.”

Greer then asked her if she would do it if it’s for a very good cause, such as the “commutation of the life sentences for two Australians?” She was referring to Chan and Sukumaran, who have already been transferred from the Kerobokan prison in Bali to Nusakambangan Island, where they are expected to be killed by firing squad any time this month.

“Please don’t go there, Germaine. Please don’t go there,” a laughing Bishop refused to answer the imagined scenario.

Bishop has been making continuous representations to Indonesia to ask them for Chan and Sukumaran’s clemency. The Asian country’s government has not yielded such requests, though, with President Joko Widodo reiterating his administration’s tough stance against drug offenders. Australia offered to exchange three Indonesian prisoners in the country for Chan and Sukumaran’s lives, but Indonesia rejected the deal. The two Australians’ lawyers are currently challenging Mr Widodo’s clemency blanket ban on 64 drug offenders on death row.

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