James Mathison Had His First Grilling On ‘The Project’ Last Night And Actually Did Pretty Well

Last week, former Australian Idol host James Mathison injected some small measure of excitement into the deathless monstrosity that is the federal election campaign by announcing his intention to run against former Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the blue-ribbon Liberal seat of Warringah on Sydney’s northern beaches.

While Mathison’s an undeniable long shot to take the seat off Abbott, who’s held it for more than 20 years, he’s had a stack of publicity and a largely positive response so far to get his campaign started. Plus, we live in a country that elects dinosaur-loving mining tycoons and former Melbourne Storm captains on a semi-regular basis, so anyone who tells you a Mathison election victory can’t happen is kidding themselves.

Having carefully managed his media appearances so far (he announced his candidacy via an interview with MTV Australia), Mathison dipped his toe into the wider media for the first time last night by appearing on The Project for a mild grilling. Freshly minted in the young-pollie uniform of a suit without a tie, Mathison fielded questions about the price of milk, the national interest rate and his chances of winning at least as well as Barnaby Joyce would have. It was a pretty friendly interview and it’ll be interesting to see how Mathison handles more rigorous questioning as the election gets closer, but if you can make Steve Price crack a smile you’ve got to be doing something right.