Bill Shorten may have lost some voter trust on big ticket commitments after abandoning the school kids bonus for struggling families this week.
But the opposition leader came through on a much smaller and insignificant promise - much to my mother's complete disbelief.
On a balmy Darwin evening, I casually mentioned to Australia's alternative prime minister that my mum was keen for a political leader to take their election campaign to Bendigo - a Labor marginal seat in central Victoria which rarely gets any national attention.
She was willing to put on a morning tea spread so long as she was reunited with her jet-setting press gallery daughter who doesn't get home as much as she should.
Shorten laughed and requested her number so he could call up and say g'day.
I completely forgot about it, until Maria texted me the next day.
"Guess who rang me this afternoon? I couldn't believe it! I was so nervous.
"You're in big trouble next time you come home Missy!" mum said.
She took the opportunity to go into tourism ambassador mode.
"I told him to come up with his wife and take her to the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at the art gallery."
The episode was pretty typical of Shorten's style out on the hustings - friendly, relaxed and having fun.
He started week three with a cheeky morning run at Bondi in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's blue ribbon seat of Wentworth.
His campaign bus plastered with a giant photo of his face, trailed behind.
Later, when primary school children taught him a new dance move known as dabbing, he politely declined to participate while poking fun at his South Pacific daggy dancing.
Health announcements dominated his visits to Perth, Melbourne and the Top End and Shorten visited his fourth and fifth medical clinics since the election was called. (Particularly convenient for a TV cameraman who bailed up a doctor to look at a swollen insect bite.)
But it was Shorten's encounters with ovarian cancer survivors in Melbourne and indigenous rangers with baby crocodiles in the remote Northern Territory community of Maningrida that were most telling.
He was visibly moved by the courage of those doing it tough, wanting to bring them more hope for the future if he wins on July 2.
