Annabel Crabb has a problem with the toilets in Parliament House. Here's why.

Annabel Crabb is one of those women who can more or less do anything.

Case in point: right when we thought she’d found her place in the world of political journalism and non-fiction writing, she went and created a cooking show, Kitchen Cabinet, in which Annabel and her guest conduct an informal interview while cooking a meal together.

She also hosts Chat 10 Looks 3 with her work wife Leigh Sales, a podcast in which two of Australia’s smartest women look at pop culture and politics through a whip-smart lens.

This week, Annabel spoke to Mia Freedman on the No Filter podcast about… well… politics.

But oh my goodness if anyone can make politics interesting it’s Annabel Crabb.

“In the Old Parliament house, sometimes MPs were two or three to an office. They were sharing accomodation.”

She goes on, “There weren’t toilets in the offices, so if you went out for a wee you’d run into somebody… there was a much more close and cramped environment. You couldn’t avoid your enemies.”

“New Parliament House – it’s 30 years old so it’s not that new – is much bigger. It is much more spread out, and everybody has their own suite, which includes staff, their own personal office, and lots of bathrooms. They really don’t have to leave.”

Australian politicians have bathrooms in their offices now, and Annabel Crabb thinks it’s ruining the vibe. Listen to her gripe with parliamentary plumbing below. Post continues after audio. 

“This is my private obsession… I think that we should remove the plumbing from parliamentarian’s offices and make them use communal toilets again.”

“If you run into someone by accident you’re much more likely to have a random conversation that somehow goes somewhere.”

In other words, Tanya Plibersek should have to go to the public loo. Next to Jacqui Lambie. So they can have chats.

We think it’s a fantastic idea.

Bumping into people who's views you oppose or whom you hardly know is, according to Annabel, one of the joys of working in Parliament House full time.

She recalls, from her time as a journalist there, "the random accidental conversations you have when you run into somebody in the lunch line."

"You start off talking about - 'Now, this salad isn't very good' - but before you know it, you've learnt something really interesting about something that's going on."

You can listen to the full episode of No Filter with Annabel Crabb, below.