I saw my share of bird-dogging before I’d even met the word. Geelong, say, 2021. Scott Morrison, the then-PM, was on the campaign trail. Amid a press scrum, one voice arose: “Prime Minister, Geelong Council’s put a feasibility study into a big ute for the region, a ute on a pole as a tourist attraction. It’s got the support of Daniel Andrews and Anthony Albanese. Do you support a big ute for Geelong?”

Hardly the question Morrison was expecting, but that’s the gist of bird-dogging, the spookier flipside of a Dorothy Dixer, where a journo or zealous local will “confront a politician at a public event with direct questions to draw attention to a specific issue, or call them to account”, as per the Macquarie.

Albo and ScoMo, brothers in arms when it comes to political pollywaffle.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Origins lie in hunting, where a bird-dog is trained to sniff out quail, say, and........

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