He used the line "lost interest in innovation" twice during the interview, but failed to dissuade Sales from continuing along her line of inquiry. Leigh Sales stuck to her line of inquiry. Credit:Screengrab: ABC "If every guest on the program came on and they only got to talk about what they wanted to talk about it would be a very different program. Now listen …" she said. As Sales pivoted from the subject of frontbencher Mal Brough contradicting himself in parliament over the James Ashby controversy to Ian Macfarlane's defection to the Nationals, Turnbull tried to take the rudder. "Let me ask you this question, how interested do you think your audience are…"

"I ask the questions on this program," Sales fired back. Primer Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked Sales is she had "lost interest in innovation". Credit:ABC "Do you think they're more interested in innovation and jobs?" Turnbull continued. "I'll tell you what I think they're interested in. One of your colleagues resigning from the Liberal Party to join the National Party, Ian Macfarlane." Sales responded.

Turnbull also declined to say whether Mal Brough has offered to step aside from the frontbench as he faces a police investigation into whether he asked Ashby, a former staffer of Peter Slipper, to copy the former Speaker's diary. "I don't want to go, with great respect, into discussions between myself and ministers on this matter," he said. In the final minutes of the interview, Sales offered Turnbull "a little gift" as she turned back to the topic of innovation. "How very kind of you," Turnbull said. But as Sales asked the PM whether he thought his political honeymoon would be over once the focus shifted to tough budget decisions, it was clear the gift was not appreciated.

"You often invite me to comment on myself, but that's your job and I don't want to do a work to rule here, but it's very much your responsibility," he said. But Turnbull's failed attempt to innovate the traditional interview format on the hop may not deter the PM, who earlier on Monday expounded the benefits of being given the freedom to fail. In his first interview with Sales after seizing the Prime Ministership from Tony Abbott, Turnbull flagged his new approach to interviews, speaking of a "paradigm shift" that would do away with the "Canberra games" of ruling in and ruling out every incremental decision for a hungry media.