Stop the stopwatch and ring the bell -- we've got our first zinger of the election. The inaugural clap back of the 2022 election campaign comes from the quick work of Greens leader Adam Bandt who fired back at a journalist attempting a gotcha question with a simple "Google it, mate."
Bandt was taking questions after his address at the National Press Club on Wednesday afternoon. Ron Mizen from The Financial Review got up and asked a very long-winded question that culminated in one thing: what's the current wage price index?
"Google it, mate!" Bandt snapped back without missing a beat.
"If you want to know why people are turning off politics, it's because... you have an election that increasingly becomes this basic fact-checking exercise between a government that deserves to be turfed out and an opposition that's got no vision."
He's not wrong, the WPI is a very easily-Googled piece of information. Could have taken you about two seconds to punch into your phone while you're having a pre-meeting piss, Ron. But that's beside the point here, isn't it?
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Bandt went on to give a rather impressive and well-thought-out "fuck you" to anyone who's trying in vain to nail down politicians with these gotcha moments in this campaign (which we're only THREE days into, by the way).
"Elections should be about a contest of ideas," he said.
"Politics should be about reaching for the stars and offering a better society. And instead, there's these questions that are asked 'can you tell us this particular stat' or 'can you tell us that particular stat?'
"And those questions are designed to show that politicians are somehow out of touch and not representative of everyday people.
"You know what would be a better way of showing that politicians are in touch with the need of everyday people? It would be passing laws that lift the minimum wage. It would be making dental and mental into Medicare.
"It would be making sure that we wipe student debt and build affordable houses. And when you've got wages growing at about 2 per cent and inflation at 3 and a bit per cent, that is the problem.
"And I hope that at this election, we can lift the standard and turn it into a genuine contest of ideas."
In his longer response to Mizen's attempt at a gotcha question, Bandt actually did sneak in the answer just to really round out the serve and put the boot in a little further.
So there it is. Mark it up on the Election Zinger tally board. This campaign season is officially on and firing, folks.
