Surely the nation was totally over reflections on Kevin Rudd's "sackiversary" even before the man himself thought better of it, and cancelled his own party.

These days, the media go ridiculously early on anniversary coverage to try and render their competition either late or repetitive. This time, they all broke at about the same time and engaged in massive overkill.

The trouble with that strategy is that the historical record can miss a few relevant bits - like for example, the announcement that Telstra has signed up to the NBN deal.

That cleared one of the major hurdles in the construction of the biggest infrastructure project Australia has seen. It will make the network more efficient and cheaper to build, and it pulls much of the ground from under the Opposition.

But you won't read any of that in the trillions of words already written on the achievements - or lack of them - in the first year of Gillard's Government.

Imagine if the Government had got its act together in time to announce - on the anniversary itself - a breakthrough in the formulation of a structure for carbon pricing. All those reflections on one year in office would have been rendered completely irrelevant.

The articles themselves were not so much the problem. Analysts actually put a lot of work into this stuff. It's just that they came too early to capture the full picture. Another example. Tony Abbott is praised in many of them for a negative campaign loaded up with stunts because it's working.

But then - after most of the assessments had been written - one of his stunts spectacularly fell over.

It is true Abbott received valuable publicity in the News Ltd tabloids and on talk-back radio with his idea of a plebiscite on the carbon tax. But by refusing to commit to the result, he reduced the exercise to an $80 million opinion poll that everybody was free to ignore.

That was a significant blunder. In general the stunts work, they continue to the gentle applause of the media. They go to every one of them, even though Abbott has nothing new to say. But when a big one fails, the dynamics change. Scepticism, even ridicule, starts to creep in; just as Kevin Rudd discovered with his dreadful price watch and petrol watch campaigns.

So in the week of the anniversary itself - when most of the report cards were already in - Abbott comes up with a "Monday surprise" on a plebiscite that crashes and burns and Gillard counters with a "Thursday NBN surprise" that will have an impact for decades to come. None of this will necessarily budge the polls, but both would have been food for thought for the analysts who jumped the gun.

In any case, all this was coinciding with further warnings to Abbott to start broadening his strategy.

The Australian in its Thursday editorial, summed it up this way: "He (Abbott) needs to think hard about issues beyond carbon pricing and asylum seekers and start talking about health and social policy issues that have a direct impact on ordinary Australians.

"His appeal to voters who were once rusted on to Labor is obvious, but he cannot rely on holding them with a populist agenda that does not deliver real improvement to their lives.

"Ms Gillard's lack of authority has helped Mr Abbott to a stunning lead in the polls. Now he must ensure that his own authority as an alternative prime minister is clearly established with the Australian electorate."

The NBN announcement did add weight to a week, that otherwise relied on some excellent valedictories from departing senators for genuine reflection and substance.

But I for one am prepared to wear Lindsay Tanner's rebukes just this once and say that I thoroughly enjoyed the Canberra sideshow this week. The trivia - and yes the stunts - were first class. The sight of all the independents putting on cowboy hats to tease Bob Katter was priceless. And Kevin Rudd's "Bogan-ville" performance - hang on, make that Julie Bishop's "Bogan-ville" performance - was all class, as these things go. Even the tit for tat quorum fiasco on Tuesday night had its moments.

Barrie Cassidy hosts Insiders and Offsiders on ABC1.