Is there a more closely monitored maternity leave in this country than that of Leigh Sales? The host of the ABC’s current affairs flagship 7.30 finished up in February of this year, prior to the birth of her second child, and her place was taken by award-winning Four Corners reporter Sarah Ferguson, who has proven to be a capable host and, crucially, a formidable interviewer.

Sales is by no means a pushover, but surely some of Ferguson’s bruised subjects are counting down the days until her predecessor’s six months away ends? If Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who made the mistake of trying to mock Ferguson during a recent post-federal budget discussion and was met with short shrift, had any sense he’d be around at Sales’ home, offering to hang out laundry, change nappies, or anything else that might facilitate her early return.

Ferguson is strictly business; even her welcomes are pared-down and delivered at a decent clip. Born and raised in Britain, but a resident here for more than two decades, she has a hybrid accent that does wonderful things with certain words – every MH370 link she does should by law use “radar” at least once – but she also literally gets more into a 10-minute slot than her contemporaries.

Ferguson is not ferocious or pushy or bossy – or any other coded phrase a forthright woman in the public eye often attracts – she’s in fact unyielding, determined and precise. She doesn’t appear ready to concede ground in the interest of moving on, which matters in the context of 7.30, a crucial platform in Australia public discussion, because successive generations of politicians believe (or have been taught) that blind persistence will win them the day, or at least avoid defeat.