And don’t they look swell together? The Brad and Angelina of Australian politics, except not so much we think. Still, here are two less X-rated reader comments about the smouldering pair:

“Stephen Smith, tall, skinny, able, stunningly good looking and cannot stand Rudd.”

“Kate Ellis — even in a British team tracksuit.”

All that said, the real shock of these results is the mildly disturbing discovery that 14.3% of Crikey readers find Barnaby Joyce sexy … we like Barnaby, but he’s no Ron Boswell if you get our drift. And for the ladies: a jelly-wrestle death match between Ms Gillard and Ms Ellis was predictable despite the obvious, abundant and seasoned charms of Fran Bailey and the occasional Sharon Stone moment from Julie Bishop. The best you can draw from all of this is that our pollies are not a sexy lot. As someone said, showbusiness for ugly people.

View the full Crikey Readers’ Choice Awards results here.