Politics

Malcolm Turnbull Appeared on ‘Have You Been Paying Attention?’ And Got Non-Stop Roasted

The quips came early, and they didn't stop.

by Joseph Earp  5 May 2020
Malcolm Turnbull on Have You Been Paying Attention

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Malcolm Turnbull is in a new phase of his career — the twinkly-eyed elder statesman. Or at least, that’s the stage of his career that he’s trying to pretend to be in.

The ex-Prime Minister was largely absent for huge swathes of time after he lost the Prime Ministership, giving limited interviews and public appearances. But now, for whatever reason, he’s bloody everywhere. He’s just published a best-selling memoir, has become massively active on Twitter — time online he has spent picking fighting and trying to correct his legacy — and is just generally doing a lot of talking.

Last night, in fact, Turnbull appeared on political quiz show Have You Been Paying Attention?, and sat there and got roasted for an entire half an hour.

See, Turnbull served as quizmaster for the special socially-distanced instalment of the show — and the burns started early. When discussion turned to the coronavirus app released by the government, Turnbull confirmed that he had indeed downloaded it. At which point, comedian Kitty Flanagan chimed in to reveal that she had “downloaded” his book, a reference to the massive leak of Turnbull’s memoirs ahead of publication.

Later, the one-time Prime Minister served up a few questions for the celebrity contestants, asking them to identify which politician he called “weak and treacherous” in his new book.

“Was it Alan Jones, Malcolm?” quipped Marty Sheargold,

Turnbull did get in a quip of his own, mind you. When contestant Sam Pang pretended to be the owner of a small “wet market” looking for government assistance, Turnbull shot back that Pang’s days as a “bat vendor” were over.

Okay, look, I didn’t say it was a good quip, okay? Just that it was a quip.

The Malcolm Turnbull publicity tour doesn’t appear to be slowing down, either. So prepare to see a lot more of the man on your television screens over the next few weeks, I reckon.