One for the aficionados

Which of today’s serving federal politicians could conceivably be described as a household name? Who among them would be easily identifiable across the great bulk of the politically uninterested Malcolm Turnbull, because he’s the prime minister, and Tony Abbott because he’s the recently deposed one. Barnaby Joyce, not because he’s Nationals leader and deputy prime minister (the occupant of that position tends to fly below the public consciousness), but because he’s Barnaby. Pauline Hanson, who celebrates the twenty-first anniversary of her arrival on the political scene next month. Opposition leader Bill Shorten, probably, and Julie Bishop, perhaps. There may be more, but Cory Bernardi, who quit the Liberal Party on Tuesday, would struggle to make the top forty, and nothing could be more emblematic of the self-nourishing isolation of the political bubble, its disconnect with reality, than the media hoo-ha that accompanied this long-anticipated event.