Missing were three vital issues which at no stage of the campaign were raised - water, the Royal Commission into trade unions (instituted by former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott) which his successor, Malcolm Turnbull, used as a tool to trigger the double dissolution; nary a question from the government or media about the alternate Prime Minister Bill Shorten's part in the political assassination of his two previous leaders, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard. 

At least Shorten's campaign launch - the word "launch" a misnomer if ever there was one, being held a fortnight before the end of an eight-week's campaign - was reasonable if for no other reason than the two Labor warriors Bob Hawke and Paul Keating turned up and ignited some passion, but Turnbull's, held at the end of the seventh week, was woeful.

Crikey Insider summed up the Coalition launch: "What was not in the speech was also notable. No mention of the biggest spending policy of the Coalition campaign, the $50 billion big company tax cut.

“If you heard the speech, you'd be forgiven for thinking the only proposal on the table was a tax cut for small business."

"No mention at all - literally none, nought, zero of the NBN. The man who once looked set to demolish Labor and rule for years was reduced to pleading for a majority.

“The man who lost his leadership fighting for action on climate change avoided mentioning it.

"As a rally it wasn't much; as a demonstration of the disappointment of Turnbull's prime ministership, it was a perfect distillation".

So, to the Nationals. The party appeared leaderless and, in a sense, it was. Barnaby Joyce appeared here and there, but seemed pre-occupied with holding his seat and with good reason.

The party with some promising new blood after the previous election and which offered so much on behalf of rural and regional Australia to take issues right up to the Liberals (viz the Liberals' rejection of money for the Murray-Darling medical school and its abject failure to support the dairy farmers), hardly gave a yelp. Perhaps it needs a new, younger leader irrespective of whether Joyce survives or not.

So, to the media. In a word, miserable. Consistently repetitious in its questioning; failure to nail the main parties' spokesmen on issues like water, food production and matters regional but, overall, oblivious to the bleeding obvious - most of us were bored out of our socks by week two.

The surprise, so I am told, was Alan Jones' appearance on Q&A this week and at other times in the campaign for better recognition of regional Australia.

From a very ordinary start, miles behind the prime minister, Shorten made this a contest, quite possibly due to his "town hall meetings", his meet the people at their level idea.

Best possible result?

A new party emerges from the current rabble with the Captain Charles Sturt motto: "For the public good".

Best quote of the campaign?

From a News Limited journalist: "Politics should be a noble profession that attracts the best and brightest to serve their country. This may be optimistic ... but the voters deserve better than the bottom-feeders, has-beens and wannabes who all too often appear on the ballot paper".