Politicians are particularly fond of claiming battler status. I was reminded of this when, about a week ago, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who has previously told childhood stories of being evicted from a farm and living in a car, spoke on radio about the menial jobs he did after finishing school.

"What was the most difficult one? The job I once had as a cleaner at a sawmill, cleaning the loos. It's part of growing up doing different things," he told Fairfax Radio. Hopefully when the mill closed, he didn't have to sell himself for medical experiments, or mortgage the paper bag he lived in. To be fair, he was making the point that a dud job can be a stepping stone to something better.

Liberals are just as guilty of playing the battler card. Malcolm Turnbull under-egged the pudding so badly in his inaugural speech as Opposition Leader last year, key quotes became the subject of an amusing YouTube clip, set to the tune In The Ghetto. Among his best lines:

I know what it's like to be very short of money. I know what it's like to live in rented flats. I do not come to the position of leader of the Liberal Party from a lifetime of privilege. Clearly attending Sydney Grammar, becoming a partner at Goldman Sachs and living on the waterfront at Point Piper can't numb the pain of having once lived in a leased dwelling.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/poor-poor-pitiful-me-battle-cry-of-pollies-as-they-climb-the-greasy-pole-20090807-ecwd.html?page=-1