Without wishing to be too unkind to our Nationals' candidate, Mackenna Powell, she too suffered from Michael Daley's syndrome. She would refer to "my policy", unable to outline The Nationals' policies on particular issues, resorting to an "I'll get back to you" type of answer.

I think she lacked that absolute determination to win. I visited her Baylis Street office six weeks ago as it was being set up, and offered via a staff member to do an interview for one of these Monday columns. I confirmed that offer by email. Do winning politicians ever refuse publicity?

On another losing note, why do political parties name their candidate so close to an election?

This election showed that voters choose the candidate they know. I am sure that this cost votes. That's not to say that Ms Powell wasn't a worthy candidate.

I am simply saying that too many people that I talked to simply didn't know who she was. She didn't have time to build that familiarity within the electorate.

However, The Nationals have not learnt lessons from the loss of Orange. Too many voters talked about council amalgamations. Councils were to The Nationals what Obeid was to Labor.

People in Lockhart, where I was school principal for a long time, told me that small councils like Lockhart, Junee and Coolamon would be next if The Nationals didn't listen.

I noted that the anti-government vote in Tumbarumba was very high, too. The amalgamation battle is not over yet!

Much has been made of Ms Berejiklian's Armenian background.

In a nation of migrants that could even have been a winning factor.

But we need to also note that "assimilation", not "multiculturalism", was the policy for refugees at that time.

The Berejiklian family was integrated into the Australian community from the moment they arrived.

Ms Berejiklian talks of her first days at school, not being able to understand what was being said in class.

I can relate to her plight because my first three years as a teacher were at Austral, a school on Sydney's outskirts where new migrant children were arriving almost every day. Those Austral children were successful because they shared the ambition of the Berejiklian family.

I watched migrant families grow into the Austral community through sheer hard work.

They were mostly Italians and Yugoslavs, but from everywhere else in Europe as well.

The children understood English within weeks, and their parents, particularly fathers, attended "English for New Australians" lessons at night. I taught those night lessons for a couple of years. Being "Australian" was important to them. Being successful in Australia meant working two jobs, the factory and their market garden, building a new home, and starting their own business.

Mr Daley's foolish remarks about Asian migrants really hit home. Asian migrants integrate very quickly. They work hard, and possibly do take "Aussie" jobs as Mr Daley implied, but the overall message he missed is that he was insulting every hard-working migrant that had ever come to this country.

Those Austral kids, probably now retired, would have been annoyed by Mr Daley's foolish remark. It reflected on the effort and sacrifice their migrant parents had shown when they were new arrivals.

In a column a few years back I described preparing for sale an aged aunty's flat in Sydney. In this unit block, all the new residents were Asian. I chatted to a group of young men, all parents, about settling in to their new life.

They came home in their white shirts, but changed into overalls an hour later. Yes, they had second jobs as cleaning contractors. And yes, an Asian family bought our aunty's flat. Aren't hard working migrants the ones we want in Australia?

Congratulations to Ms Berejiklian on a deserved win. Congratulations too, to Dr Joe McGirr who has worked hard to become well-known in the community. Each has provided a master class for aspiring politicians.