Most television interviews with politicians are predictable and bland because most politicians have mastered the art of preparing the answers in advance, irrespective of the questions. Politicians hone their non-answers and rehearsed phrases in media training sessions and dry-runs with their staff.

But two nights ago, on the ABC’s 7.30 Report, a senior federal minister failed to deliver a non-answer to an unexpected question and, in the process, got perilously close to telling an awful truth.

Judging by the minister’s response, Kerry O’Brien must have really surprised stony-faced Health Minister Nicola Roxon when he launched a line of questioning about the endless Budget leaks from the Rudd Government, and in particular last weekend’s leak about changing the Medicare surcharge.

“Are you comfortable that this kind of media manipulation has now become commonplace?” he asked Roxon.

“Why not, if you want it out, why not just announce it if you want it out there before the Budget? I would have thought that would be a more honest way to do it, wouldn’t it?”

NICOLA ROXON: I don’t think that there’s anything in the least bit dishonest about us saying this was an issue that we telegraphed before the election, it was an issue that we had criticised the previous government for and us then announcing that it’s something that we are going to provide relief to working families on.

KERRY O’BRIEN: I’m not talking about what’s in the announcement or what drove the announcement, I’m talking about the deliberate manipulation of its release by leaking it into newspapers rather than just coming out and making an honest to God up front public announcement. Somebody must have approved and leak, who’s decision was it, was it the Prime Minister’s, the Treasurer’s? You must have been consulted?

NICOLA ROXON: The internal workings of media management, either your shows as you run them, Kerry, or our handling of the media is a bit like sausage making, some things you don’t want to see behind the scenes.

“The internal workings of media management” … “our handling of the media “… “a bit like sausage making” … “some things you don’t want to see behind the scenes”. Hold on, Minister. You’re not supposed to use words like that in public. What happened to obfuscation and blandness?

Nicola Roxon didn’t so much as let a cat out of a bag as confirm — in a strikingly candid moment on national television — that the Rudd Government runs a media management machine “behind the scenes” that produces leaks and spin in a process that is just as unedifying as “sausage making”.

It was an interview with a politician that revealed much more than spinmeistering-as-usual.