The main message of the 2016 election review delivered recently at the National Press Club by Tony Nutt, the federal director of the Liberal Party since late last year, was essentially that the Turnbull government only failed to have a convincing victory because of the so-called 'Mediscare' by the Labor Party.
As a good party bureaucrat the federal director undoubtedly enunciated the primary message which the government has decided to try to sell to the electorate. In his position he could do nothing else and he knew that this was the story which the media would pick up on.
It is a message that deflects attention from the current and past weaknesses of the government and the prime minister. It is like a football coach who after a loss or an unexpectedly narrow win blames his team's performance on the dirty tactics of the opposition. In doing so you inevitably brush over the weaknesses or limitations of your own performance.
It can be successful in the short term, although in this instance it was not because the media/press gallery was far from convinced that Labor's scare tactic was any worse than those employed by the Coalition itself in recent times on different issues.
By emphasising the Medicare controversy Nutt placed the focus firmly on the importance of the eight-week campaign period rather than what preceded it (including Tony Abbott's departure), avoiding any convincing explanation as to why the government and the new prime minister fell so dramatically from favour after the initial Turnbull honeymoon period.
They had in fact already disappointed sections of the electorate and thrown away a golden opportunity to consolidate their position. The campaign itself, during which the Mediscare took place, didn't really change much at all in terms of voter preferences. The government began in a virtual tie with Labor and the Greens and that's where it ended with the government just marginally ahead.
The federal director also advanced the counterintuitive proposition that the Coalition government was the underdog in campaigning terms and so won the election against the odds. This is a useful insight into the thinking of Liberal party insiders and shows the value of speeches like this by party bureaucrats even if they are heavily constrained by the need not to be critical of their own party.
Nutt, a professional with lengthy Liberal Party staff experience at the highest levels, emphasised that the party had limited resources and even limited