First, to the reminder the show delivered of what an exciting time it is to be a conservative politician in Australia. The vital question before us: who will be our answer to Donald Trump?

"So you can be a Sharia law supporter and be half-pregnant at the same time, C'mon," Senator Lambie said. Credit:ABC

The nation waits, on tenterhooks. Will it be Cory Bernardi, who has recently shown a Trump-like verve for blowing up his own party and quite enjoying it? Or maybe Pauline Hanson, who would most dearly love to no longer be Australia's answer to questions on Family Feud about "things that wake you up screaming in the middle of the night."

And then there is Lambie, who returned to the Q&A panel to stake her claim.

Until now, Lambie has been the answer mostly to the prayers of people who speak almost entirely in vowel sounds but she has other strings to her boaoaew. And while we can't be certain exactly what was going on with the senator from Tasmania, it was hard not to conclude she was advertising herself as the answer to problems with the electricity grid. Leading by example, Lambie appeared to have come equipped with her own power supply - and ever the practical soul, she would turn it up and down as required by circumstances. For brief moments she would stare intently ahead as if trying to work out a door handle, and at others she would be leaping about in her seat loathing everyone and everything in sight with an enthusiasm that suggested she had been freshly injected with some of the nation's finest kilowatts.