You know that one about “if you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door”. The point is that no one will even notice which is where marketing comes in. Whether it is better or worse, unless it comes to the attention of others, it might as well not exist.

Both in Victoria and Federally, the Coalition has run rings around their Labor predecessors. Here in Victoria we have had three years of ultra-boring but very competent government. No dramas, no screw-ups just no-frills governance. Labor left behind its desal plant and Myki ticketing which are billions of dollars forms of waste for which no serious explanation for the expenditure has ever been forthcoming. There is nothing similar with our present government, but in about ten days they will apparently become the former government of Victoria, the first in more than sixty years to lose after only one term. And they will be losing to a socialist left Opposition leader who’s in the pockets of our most left facing unions.

Federally, the government is trying to turn around the good ship Titanic before it hits the iceberg. So many horrors left behind by Labor that it’s hard to add them up. The debt, the deficits, the boat people, the NBN and on it goes. Yet even a year later, they are in the box seat to win the next election.

Now I realise that as a mere citizen, I am not at the edge of politics. Political judgement is the major asset anyone in government must develop if they are to achieve anything beyond dogcatcher. So I have to assume that you guys are the professionals etc etc.

But here’s the thing. In the modern era – probably in every era – a government must campaign throughout its entire period in office. Labor, in the same way as Obama, never stopped campaigning even if the product was useless and only did harm. The Coalition, on the other hand, is slowly but surely putting things right across a very broad front. Yet just doing the right thing is clearly not enough. Putting your case before the public – EXPLAINING WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHILE YOU ARE DOING IT IN THE MOST FAVOURABLE WAY POSSIBLE – is a crucial part of governance. No whinging, no whining, just explaining is what is required.

Maybe you are doing it. I never watch TV, I only read a couple of papers, I get most of my news on the net so I may not be as plugged in to the max. But if you lose the unlosable re-election, whatever you may think you are achieving at the moment will be washed away in the succeeding nine years of the Shorten-Plibersek horrors what will follow. And however bad they are as an actual government, their marketing you may be sure will be supreme.