Kevin Rudd spends an inordinate amount of time on the election trail sitting on small chairs and even the floor reading to children, dandling babies and chucking little folk beneath the chin, but he met his match on Wednesday.

Joseph Kim, a five-year-old extrovert, fairly bombed the Prime Minister's photo opportunity. Rather than meekly allowing himself to became a stage prop, he took over the show.

The grumpy old actor, the late W.C. Fields, would have understood. He is said (incorrectly, but it's too late now) to have warned against sharing the stage with small children or animals.