It’s a bitterly cold Melbourne morning when the angular Rod Sims charges into Casselden tower at the top of Lonsdale Street in his Casablanca-inspired, bone trench coat. He’s hurtling forward with such speed he more resembles projectile missile than man; his Hawthorn football scarf oscillates in his wake.

Sims has just hightailed it by foot from the ABC’s radio studios in Southbank, two kilometres away, where he was talking up his assault on Facebook and Google. He has already had the first of his daily “decision-making calls” with senior advisers and an early-morning briefing on deaths caused by quad bikes. Up next is an internal meeting to discuss the latest merger applications, before he sets off on foot again, to Crown Casino, another two kilometres away, to address the Melbourne Press Club over lunch. Such is the variety show that comes before the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.