Operation Fugu: How to frame Turnbull from Day 1

This how Labor needs to take Turnbull on as Opposition Leader, should he get the gig.

Malcom Turnbull is laughable. He is like the first speaker in the private school debating team: a little overeager, comically pompous and thoroughly pleased with himself. He has a tendency to cite his own speeches in subsequent speeches. He uses the first person pronoun like a machine gun. He is rich and pompous, puffed up and preening. He is prone to overacting. He is a bit of a ham. He is inauthentic.

As Prime Minister, John Howard was always formidable, an adjective that doesn't live in the same suburb as Malcom Turnbull. He lacks gravitas. He is laughable.

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A young researcher should be tasked with keeping track of every word he says that reinforces these themes - his use of 'I' and 'me', his tendency for self-reference, his pomposity and overacting etc. Keep scorecards. Get a website going. Use YouTube. Find a backbencher in the Reps and a Senator who can run the issues out in Parliament. Get the Minister on message in response to his questions at Question Time. Keep it light and fun. Gentle mocking tones.

Examples of how this "death-by-derision" approach to flawed opposition leaders abound: Ian Duncan Smith, the British Tory leader mocked for his timidity and constant coughing; John Kerry as "flip-flopper" and pompous git; Neil Kinnock as a windbag; Denis Napthine in Victoria flayed by then-backbencher Tim Holding for his gaffes and inconsistencies.

Follow Operation Fugu, and Turnbull will be gone or damaged beyond repair within a year.