And no area of government doings is safe from his innovative zeal. Not even question time.

Last month, Turnbull and Christopher Pyne announced the 2pm chat session would get a spruce up with a "constituency question time" tacked on the end of the regular show.

The idea was to let backbench MPs quiz frontbench MPs on local issues and give them more of a say in proceedings.

Privately, of course, Parliament watchers hoped this might see more sass from MPs, given the infamously anodyne Dorothy Dixers backbenchers are forced to ask (i.e. Treasurer, can you tell us how great the government is?)

Surely if local issues and actual voters were on the line, MPs wouldn't hold back?

Well, the lesson from Monday is never assume that question time is going to be more interesting than it is.

On the first day of the new Constituency QT it was actually impossible to tell - judging by the questions and answer - that the innovation had begun.

Question time had been proceeding with government questions along the mind-numbing lines of "Will the Prime Minister explain to the House the importance of providing strong economic leadership ...?"

Or this pearler from Bronwyn Bishop to Pyne:

"Will the minister update the House on action the government is already taking to place innovation and science at the centre of economic growth?"

So the constituency questions did not stand out when western Sydney Liberal David Coleman asked Major Projects Minister Paul Fletcher for an update on the M5 upgrade: "How will the residents from the surrounding suburbs benefit from these changes?"

There was nothing in Fletcher's manner to suggest that innovation was afoot, either. Indeed, he was reading from what looked suspiciously like a totally prepared answer.

The only thing that gave the game away was Labor's brass band hooting in response.

"Teacher's pet!" the opposition yelled of the sassless Coleman.

"How spontaneous!" they hollered of Fletcher's talking points-based response.

"I thought this was questions WITHOUT notice."

Constituency QT limped on with more limp questions, such as on how the government is "working to honour our veterans" in the Anzac centenary year and how it is making youth payments more "fair and equitable". The only nod to "constituency" was to bung in a token reference to the questioner's electorate.

So one Labor MP couldn't help themselves as question time flopped over the finish line.

In homage to Turnbull's favourite line, they observed: "[What] a great time to be alive."

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