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CANBERRA - Rarely have Australian politics enjoyed such an embarrassment of riches.
Both major parties are now led by men of fabulous substance, with each seeking to disqualify the other from the ability to represent the common herd on the grounds of wealth.
Neither sounds too credible.
On
one side there is Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, former top bureaucrat, diplomat and consultant, earning more than A$300,000 ($362,000) a year and married to a businesswoman worth in the vicinity of A$60 million.
On the other there is new Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull, hugely successful former journalist, lawyer and merchant banker with a personal fortune estimated at between A$120 million and A$140 million.
Both are self-made men from similar, humble, backgrounds.
But both sides of politics argue that while their man embodies the Australian dream, the other's understanding of the common lot has been clouded by years of privilege.
Turnbull recognised the inevitability from the start, opening his post-leadership victory press conference with story of struggle.
"I do not come to the position of leadership of the Liberal Party from a lifetime of privilege," he said.
"I know what it's like to be very short of money. I know what it's like to live in rental flats.
"I know what it's like to grow up with no support other than a devoted and loyal father.
"I know Australians are doing it tough."
Within hours, Treasurer Wayne Swann told Parliament that Turnbull in fact had no affiliation with the everyday life of average Australians: "He thinks alcopops [pre-mixed drinks] is the noise that is made when he uncorks a Moet [champagne]."
Later he told ABC radio that Turnbull did not have a clue about life around the kitchen table.
"There's nothing wrong with earning a quid and doing well in life - the Labor Party support that objective all the way. It's the values and policies that are then adopted."
Turnbull shot back: "We have probably the richest Prime Minister we've ever had in Kevin Rudd. Therese Rein, his wife, has built a big, successful and very valuable business.
"Kevin, I know, has been a great supporter to her in that."
Both men started with little. Rudd's family were turned out of their home in Eumundi, Queensland, when his dairy sharefarmer father, Albert, died after a car accident.
Rudd, who was 11, and his family lived on what he later called the "bleak charity of the time", moving between relatives' houses and at least once having to sleep in the car.
Education provided the way out, via Marist College in Brisbane, Nambour High School - where he was dux in 1974 - and the Australian National University, where he majored in Chinese language and history to gain a first-class honours in arts.
From there he became successively a diplomat, Queensland's most powerful bureaucrat, a senior China consultant with KPMG Australia and a politician.
His wife, Therese Rein, founded international employment agency Ingeus, with annual earnings of more than A$175 million and offices in Australia, Britain, France and Germany.
Rein later sold her Australian holdings to avoid potential conflicts of interest with Rudd's position.
Turnbull was brought up by his father, Bruce, after his mother, Carol Landsbury, left and moved to the United States, living in a rented flat to scrape together the fees for Sydney Grammar, where like Rudd he was dux.
He graduated in law and arts from Sydney University, studied law at Oxford University in Britain under a Rhodes scholarship, worked as a political journalist in Sydney, later carved out a stellar career as a lawyer and, before his final incarnation as a politician, found new success as a merchant banker.
