For example: at one point during Monday night’s episode from Adelaide, a question came from Charlie, a laid-off Holden worker who wondered where his next job might be coming from. When Jones tried to interrupt the Labor leader’s answer, Shorten glared and then declared: "I'm talking to Charlie first."

Shade was thrown on the host, but if you think it was spontaneous you’d be a fool.

Politicians, especially those in opposition, know Q&A is their best serious chance at defining themselves for a national audience, and you can be certain not much is left to chance when they front the ABC cameras. Not for nothing did Malcolm Turnbull spend several years developing a leather-jacket laden posture as a friend of progressive Australia on this very program.

Shorten declared he was angry on Charlie’s behalf.

“I'm still angry every day that Abbott and Hockey did nothing to save the car industry. Before people say that's the way of the world, it's not. Other countries still make a car from woe to go in first world economies and pay good wages and their governments help them. I'm going to be angry every day for the rest of my life about it."

Jones: “Angry enough to bring back the car industry?”

Shorten, in short: “Here’s the full answer….”

He was talking to Charlie first.

Also in short: Well, no, but.

This is not the first time Shorten has pretended to go angrily toe-to-toe with Jones.

In 2015, just a week after Turnbull rolled Tony Abbott to seize The Lodge, he was confronted with questions like: “With all due acknowledgment to Bill Hayden, a drover's dog could have led the ALP to victory over Tony Abbott. Do you acknowledge that the ascension of Malcolm Turnbull has made your job a lot harder and that your leadership is a lot less secure?”

In 2016, Shorten’s solo turn came in the midst of the election campaign and he settled on his favoured Q&A strategy: go the biff with the host. A taste from that testy episode: “Tony... there's a little bit of gotcha going on here.”

In his 2017 solo outing, there was this question on his consistent trailing of Turnbull as preferred PM: “What do you think the Australian public see in Malcolm that they don't see in you and does this bother you?”

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Shorten, then: "The short answer is no.”

Which brings us to Shorten in 2018, and a variation on the same question.

From the audience on Monday night: “You’ve become well known for your unique use of zingers, Dad jokes and eccentric metaphors. Despite opinion polls suggesting you're likely to win the next election, the same polls indicate you're one of the most unpopular politicians in our country. Do you worry that these zingers and the Coalition’s 'Kill Bill’ strategy represent you as an untrustworthy and shifty character, and undermine your suitability as a potential PM?”

Shorten: “No.”

Once again, the short answer.

For the long answer, we’ll have to wait for the voters to rule at the ballot box.

In the meantime, Shorten has various foils to practise against. These include the Melbourne football club, which he invoked in a riff that died on delivery, comparing the coming by-election bonanza to Monday’s Collingwood defeat of the Demons in the AFL.

Shorten: “What do you call it in a football carnival if one team doesn't turn up to play on the field?”

An audience member delivered the punchline for him: “Melbourne.”

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“Who said Melbourne? I'm a Collingwood supporter. That was funny.”

Zinger!

Jones: “Let’s move on… I don’t think we’re going to get an answer to that question.”

Shorten: “No, no. Straight up, Tony. You say politicians talk too much about themselves and then you want to spend half the show saying, ‘What does it mean for you?’ ”

To conclude, Shorten was asked if he had any regrets.

Perhaps acknowledging the small fortune Labor has spent on media trainers who have ill-prepared him for press conferences, he admitted: “It’s possible in this job to over-consult.”

And then conceded he wished he’d pushed harder and earlier for a royal commission into the banks.

“The times I regret is when I haven't backed my own instinct.”

Jones: “Was there a moment tonight where you didn't back your own instinct?”

Shorten: “I didn't mind you interrupting me.”

It was low-level biffo. Host and guest laughed. Shorten declared he loved appearing on Q&A, and the viewer was inclined to believe it. It’s as good a television format as he has available, and he makes the most of it.

He’s clearly learned that lesson from… Turnbull.

The last word went to the host.

Jones: “Please thank properly our guest, the Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.”

Shorten could be heard over the live mike: "Good job, Tony."

Jones: "I'm still going.”

And if they hadn’t turned off the cameras, Shorten would have been, too.