SUSSAN Ley likes to say she re-applies for her job every three years.
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The Liberal member for Farrer equates elections to performance reviews.
The employment analogy is understandable, but in reality, since landing her parliamentary gig in 2001, the assistant minister has had little competition and been more like a permanent than a contractor.
In truth, Ms Ley's role is more akin to franchisee than factory hand.
She is the face of brand Liberal, just as Gerry Harvey is the personification of home goods chain Harvey Norman.
But like Mr Harvey she has faced disruption to her traditional homeground, the safe seat of Farrer which extends from Albury to Wentworth and north to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
Independent political rival and Albury mayor Kevin Mack has loomed on the horizon, like a political Amazon, wanting to upend the usual way of trading for votes.
The former policeman has looked across the Murray River to North East Victoria and fashioned a sales pitch using some of the lines of Indigo Valley resident Cathy McGowan who wrested the seat of Indi from Liberal incumbent Sophie Mirabella in 2013.
Mr Mack is arguing Ms Ley has been around a long time and the Liberal brand she represents has failed, particularly when it comes to irrigation communities.
He has $200,000 funding behind him, money which has seen him advertise on television in the Mildura area where more voters watching would be in the Victorian seat of Mallee than Farrer.
Arguably the defining moment of the campaign came appropriately in the former Market Square in central Albury where the Mack and Ley retail politics on water collided on April 9.
Mr Mack echoed their position, but Ms Ley, who was not officially invited told the crowd their fury should be directed to Labor, the other big political franchise.
You can imagine as Albury mayor Mr Mack would feel a similar parental touch towards those gathered.
Enter Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose interest in Albury seems heightened by his regard for it as the birthplace of the Liberal Party.
The former tourism boss who oversaw the 'where the bloody hell are you?' campaign, has certainly found Farrer and Indi on his hustings map.
Like the salesman he once was, Mr Morrison rolled out a nice line in patter for CWA delegates before copping a blow from an egg which failed to get out of its shell.
But it was after travelling over to Wodonga's Huon Hill hotel that the Farrer and Indi campaigns collided.
Here you had the top boss, Mr Morrison, revving up the Liberal faithful like a spruiker at an Amway convention.
The PM was hoping his diamonds would shine, with his Indi Liberal hope Steve Martin regaled as a "young man with a young family who understands what life is like in regional Australia".
The engineer who has come to Wodonga from Dubbo via Melbourne is the job hunter the Liberals expect to reclaim Indi from independent representation.
The last Liberal to represent Indi, Sophie Mirabella, did re-apply for her job in 2016, having been beaten by Ms McGowan in 2013, but found her application unsuccessful.
Hence the position of member for Indi is as open as it was in 2001 when Ms Mirabella and Ms Ley were first elected.
Since 2013, North East electors have been represented by an owner-operator enterprise instead of a franchise.
Via Ms McGowan they've been told power is more in their hands than a party's with consultation to the fore, whether it be over a budget or same-sex marriage, as part of the so-called Indi Way.
Now Wangaratta rural health researcher Helen Haines wants to continue that pattern as an independent, albeit having been endorsed by Voices 4 Indi, the same group behind Ms McGowan.
Dr Haines' biggest selling point is that independents bring attention to Indi, indeed after Mr Morrison promised $64 million for a Hume Freeway intersection fix in west Wodonga she rung it up on the independents' metaphorical cash register.
"It's again evidence of the strength of Independent representation that's delivered for North East Victoria's communities in the past six years," Dr Haines declared.
Of course the Liberals like Apple-challenged IBM (which once had a factory at Wangaratta) don't appreciate such cheekiness, pointing to a lack of interest from Ms McGowan's office over the dangers of the intersection.
What it points to is that Dr Haines has to carry some baggage from Ms McGowan, just as Nationals Indi candidate Mark Byatt saw his past as a Wodonga mayor and councillor raised in the campaign.
Liberal Democrat Victorian Upper House MP Tim Quilty alleged in Parliament that the Baranduda Fields sporting hub was being funded by the federal government to aid developer backers of Mr Byatt's campaign.
Mr Byatt denied the allegations.
With Mr Martin not being well known and lacking a history in high-profile roles he can present himself as a political novice.
But those L-plates can't disguise the big engine helping drive his bid.
That has led to orange-coloured pamphlets attacking Dr Haines being printed in Melbourne and dropped into North East letter boxes.
Of course orange is the colour of Voices 4 Indi and Dr Haines' campaign.
Watching on like corner store operators, despite their party brand recognition, have been Labor Party candidates Eric Kerr (Indi) and Kieran Drabsch (Farrer).
Mr Kerr was subject to a flyer falsely suggesting he was preferencing the Nationals, while Mr Drabsch has jabbed at Ms Ley on water and Mr Mack over a Lavington Sportsground redeveloper going bung after being appointed by Albury Council.
The pair know they can take big swings at their conservative opponents, because barring a miracle they won't be sitting on the green benches of the House of Representatives.
The lack of importance with which Labor holds our part of the world when it comes to elections is reflected in Opposition Leader Bill Shorten being the only party chief to not have visited Albury-Wodonga during the campaign.
In addition to Mr Morrison, we've seen Nationals leader Michael McCormack, Greens honcho Richard Di Natale on an anti-Adani coal mine tour, One Nation's Pauline Hanson and United Australia Party's Clive Palmer.
Mr Drabsch tweeted some advice in response to the mine owner's visit.
"So Clive Palmer is apparently in Albury, he might want to drop into the Australian Tax Office and repay the $70,000,000.00 he owes the Australian taxpayers after the current Liberal National government bailed him out.....," Mr Drabsch suggested.
The United Australia Party candidate Mike Rose has been embraced by Ms Ley, attending her launch and being placed second on her how-to-vote card.
For Ms Ley the election comes after the most turbulent of her five terms.
She went from being Health Minister at the 2016 poll to resigning that role over buying a Gold Coast property while on a work trip and then supported Peter Dutton over Mr Morrison to replace Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister.
On Saturday we will see how many stand by the Liberal MP and whether she can still add MP to her job title.
For Mr Mack it is a huge task, knocking off a 20 per cent margin of a household brand mirrors the task Dick Smith had in trying to get consumers to buy his OzEmite instead of Vegemite.
(Though Vegemite is probably always going to be more popular than politicians in Australia.)
Nevertheless, Mr Mack would be hoping waves of water dissatisfaction can turn into an ocean of votes.
There have been precedents for independents at the federal level defying big margins, with namesake Ted Mack and Tony Windsor overcoming large odds to beat incumbents.
But there is no instance of an independent being succeeded by an independent, so Dr Haines will have to defy 118 years of history if she is to win Indi.
For Mr Martin there is an opportunity to become the first Liberal man to succeed in Indi this century.
Can the franchise model of the Liberal Party eclipse the 2019 independent start-ups?
That is the question you as voters will determine in giving a job for the boys or girls on Saturday.