The Governor-General hosted an informal BBQ dinner for parliamentarians and their partners at Yarralumla the night before the first day of sitting for 2014. Happily everyone seemed in good form, balancing plates on their laps whilst perched on a garden chair or low stone wall. Perhaps mindful of the reputation of some of the Labor MPs in attendance, the Governor-General didn’t tempt fate. Steak was served on wooden skewers, eliminating the need for knives. A relief, no doubt, to members of the Labor caucus.

The first parliamentary sitting week reminded us that bullies don’t just exist at school. News reports of systemic thuggery and intimidation on worksites, and allegations of union slush funds and rip-offs, reached a crescendo culminating in the announced royal commission into trade union governance and corruption. Several days later I appeared on the ABC with Senator Sam Dastyari where he spoke candidly about everything except union corruption. Some commentators deride Sam, but I think he is a genius. As former General Secretary of the ALP and NSW campaign director, he lost a total of 44 seats over three separate elections in NSW. Anyone who can survive that record of failure and still be gifted a seat in the Senate is clearly smarter than the rest of us.

Like his leader, Sam wheeled out Labor’s tired excuses as to why a royal commission into union governance and corruption isn’t needed. In short, it goes something like this: ‘Isolated incidents’ shouldn’t reflect on an entire movement and if people have criminal allegations to raise, these should be put directly to the police or the Australian Crime Commission for investigation — ipso facto, a royal commission isn’t needed, ipso facto can we please talk about something else?

Labor’s logic didn’t seem to apply to the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. Very different subjects of course, but both doing what royal commissions do, that is, examining systemic failures. It seems pretty obvious why the ALP isn’t keen on a royal commission, given that most of their parliamentarians are ex-union officials or depend on the union movement for their preselections and campaigns. However, I remain astonished that the hostility to a royal commission is also parroted fervently by left-wing ‘nanny staters’ — the very people who wish to protect society from everything from chocolate bars to children’s adventure playgrounds; just not, apparently, immoral aspects of the union movement.

For many Australians, Question Time is their sole experience of Parliament. They see colour, occasionally wit and all too often less than ideal behaviour from their elected representatives. Frequently though, Parliament is at its best outside of Question Time, showcasing moments that move us as individuals and as a nation.

In his inaugural ‘Closing the Gap’ speech, the Prime Minister spoke about his personal journey on indigenous issues and his determination to be measured not by his aspiration for things to be better, but by the outcomes delivered under his leadership. In particular, getting indigenous children to attend school every day so that they have the education they need to fully participate in Australian society. It didn’t take long for critics to sneer at the length of his speech. They also took issue with his ‘Closing the Gap’ Report noting that it was slimmer than that of previous Labor governments. According to this logic, how much you care is directly proportionate to how much you have to say, rather than what you say and, most importantly, do. There is a similar logic that says how much you care is evidenced by how much you spend rather than what that spending actually delivers. Enough said.

Out of the Canberra bubble on Friday, the shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Richard Marles, and I took talkback calls on Tom Elliott’s popular 3AW Drive programme. Every two weeks we hear directly from people about what is on their minds. Corporate welfare, SPC Ardmona, Toyota’s announcement that it will cease manufacturing in 2017 and trade barriers dominate the discussion. It is always a good conversation and ended with Richard and I agreeing on the importance of free trade deals, and my feeling that the government’s message on personal responsibility versus entitlement is breaking through. I walked out of the studio feeling the love — appropriate for Valentine’s Day.

I finished my week as it started — with a BBQ. In the four short years that I have been the member for Higgins, I have fought a by-election and two general elections. Elections are a lot of work, not only for MPs, but also for the hundreds of volunteers who give their time willingly to support their candidate and the campaign for good government. My Higgins Liberals go above and beyond, also supporting policy development and the marginal seat campaign effort throughout Victoria and Australia. This family BBQ is one small way each year that I say thank you. Throughout Sunday afternoon, many of my state and federal colleagues and 250 or so friends dropped by the Malvern Bowling Club to grab a snag, to share some advice on what we should (and should not) be doing, and to play some barefoot bowls. The jumping castle in the corner got a workout, as did the face paint. It might not have been Yarralumla, or Parliament House, but for the afternoon it was most definitely the people’s place.