"And I enjoy fishing on the harbour with a few mates, like so many Australians do - why, I just bought this little runabout behind me, although I might see if they have one in blue so it better matches my… um, proletariat convictions." Credit:Peter Rae When Sales asked Turnbull why he was spearheading an inquiry into the Racial Discrimination Act despite having emphasised on multiple occasions that it wasn't a priority for him or his government, he took the opportunity to take aim at the real hypocrites: the "elite media". "Leigh, this is a question you should address to your editors at the ABC – very seriously," he tutted. "[Section] 18C [of the Act] is talked about constantly on the ABC, talked about constantly in what's often the elite media." And the term was no accident. "On the elite media like the ABC I often get criticised or sent up … for catching public transport a lot," he bafflingly continued. "I would have thought, after this last election in the United States, people might focus less on the polls and less on the opinions of commentators on the ABC or other elite media outlets and focus more on what people are actually saying."

Get the message, Australia? Your enemy is the elite media, and definitely not the people actually determining things like whether or not you deserve access to maternity leave. The problem for Turnbull is that he's uniquely ill-placed to frame himself as a working-class hero since he's the least working-class leader the nation has ever had. Tony Abbott was a child of well-off family that went on to enjoy the patronage of the powerful, yet successfully presented himself as a normal bloke that liked normal bloke things like beer and surfing and not recognising what a Rolex looks like when given one by a Chinese billionaire. But Turnbull is the fancy-pants archetype of wealth and privilege, so it's downright galling to watch him talk about "elites" as though he's actually some sort of renegade cop set to deal rough justice on the mean streets of Australian politics. He really can't convincingly suggest that he's a loose cannon that plays by his own rules but by god he gets results, unlike those effete pencil pushers down at City Hall. Especially since as Prime Minister, he IS City Hall.