This weekend, I think it’s productive to take you into the world of Coalition MPs as they pack their bags anticipating the return of federal parliament next week.

The parliamentary weeks show the Morrison government at its most vulnerable because the Coalition no longer commands a majority in either chamber, but it’s not the resumption of parliament many MPs are fretting about.

It’s the looming campaign.

Speaking generally, Liberal and National MPs are more buoyant than they were at the end of last year, when the mood around the government was funereal. People certainly aren’t predicting The Great Comeback – Labor remains the favourite in the contest – but people have rested, and they hope if the conversation turns to the economy, and Labor’s tax measures, that the contest will tighten.

But the looming campaign creates significant anxiety. Labor and progressive third-party activists are already mobilising on the ground in marginal and less marginal seats. One government MP in a relatively safe seat in Queensland told me this week he’d never seen so much activity, so early.

Government MPs report the Liberal party’s federal director, Andrew Hirst, is making strides trying to bring the Coalition’s campaign machine into modernity, but they still feel a long way behind their opponents.

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Coupled with the structural disadvantage created by Labor’s superior ground resources, there are also changes to voter behaviour, changes that are not particularly well examined, that increase the degree of difficulty in election seasons.

The one you hear a lot about is the significant increase in pre-poll voting. Australians are casting their votes before election day in rising numbers and that trend changes the dynamic of campaigning.

Elections used to build up, steadily, to crescendos in the final week, or weeks, and that pattern benefits political parties, because you can conserve finite resources at the beginning and reserve firepower for the closing week.

It’s much harder to pace a campaign through to a late focal point when voters in increasing numbers are voting earlier in the contest. The behavioural shift means campaigns need to assume a different rhythm, and implicit in that challenge is having the resources to communicate with voters from day one until polling day. Having enough resources also means having enough volunteers to staff pre-poll booths for the duration.

The Liberals see opportunity to rally their base, and harvest undecided voters, by banging the drum as loudly as possible about Labor’s tax measures

The purpose of this preamble is twofold. I want to point you to the practical concerns occupying the minds of government MPs hoping to be re-elected in May, and also tell you something about the psychology of the contest, because having some insight into that explains some of the behaviour we are seeing at the moment.

If we boil it down, government MPs are looking for ways to try and level the playing field between themselves and their opponents. In practical terms, that means mobilising an army for an election campaign – an army motivated enough to not only vote for the government, but actively assist the re-election effort (that latter point being crucial).

The Liberals see opportunity to rally their base, and harvest undecided voters, by banging the drum as loudly as possible about Labor’s tax measures, particularly the policy on franking credits, which has stirred up the retirees who will lose a benefit if Labor wins the election (unless of course they follow the advice of fund manager Geoff Wilson and restructure their affairs).

The hunt for a very specific form of political fightback, a fightback centred on raising money, recruiting bodies to give practical help, encouraging the creation of Liberal-linked “grassroots” bodies to amplify the message, using data to better target communications to voters – all hallmarks of Labor’s efforts in recent years to professionalise its ground game – gives important context to the overreach we’ve seen from Tim Wilson, using travelling taxpayer-funded roadshows to leverage what is a privately-funded partisan campaign.

When you are in a tearing hurry, when you need to recruit an army because the invaders are already in the field, you will be tempted to cut corners. When you are in a tearing hurry, and the need is great, senior people will also justify their decision to turn a blind eye to the consequences of this latest escalation, even if one of those consequences is your “clever” fightback morphing into yet another integrity crisis for the political class.

Part of the problem is egregious escalations like Wilson’s are often viewed inside the political and media complex through the prism of political chess – as artefacts of the race call, rather than picked apart substantively. I suspect that gives politicians a level of comfort that they can continue to push the boundaries of parliamentary conventions with a certain degree of comfort, and often be rewarded for doing it.

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The impulse to dial everything up to eleven can be seen across a range of fronts: Scott Morrison’s thundering about pedophiles coming into the country if there are better procedures for medical transfers for people kept in indefinite detention; Peter Dutton swung so hard at Bill Shorten this week his left hook almost connected with his own jaw; the leaking of security advice to select media outlets – a development which appears to have troubled officials sufficiently to see them call in the cops.

It’s clear that no one is going to die wondering in this election year, except perhaps, the voting public, who remain resolutely nonplussed at the whole freewheeling, self-justifying, shebang.

A couple of final observations about the imperative of building fighting machines. The imperative does help to rapid set one of the more genuinely interesting dynamics of the looming federal contest.

The whole boomers versus millennials motif is a generalisation that can be overworked to the point of cliche, but there will be an element of generational face-off in the coming contest, because the programs of the major parties are inviting that debate.

If we think again about franking credits, and the government’s efforts to mobilise on that issue, Labor will attempt to counter with a mobilisation on a sustainable funding of public services message, and on climate change.

The franking credits issue is hottest in the coastal communities where self-funded retirees cluster, but the risks of climate change is also red hot in those same coastal communities, where anxiety is currently at 2007 levels because of the wild summer.

We are building, inexorably, towards a clash of clans in May.