Coming from a man who had just won the prime ministership - a prize he had long coveted, and which narrowly eluded him three years ago - Tony Abbott's victory speech was almost downbeat.
He pledged "a government that says what it means and means what it says ... a government of no surprises and no excuses ... a government that understands the limits of power as well as its potential".
Not exactly stirring stuff. But it was in keeping with the limited vision and simple slogans - stop the boats, end the waste, scrap the carbon tax - on which the Coalition campaigned. It matched the aspirations of voters, who had sought not radical change but stability, not extravagant promises but clear, achievable goals, and, above all, a calm, reassuring hand on the nation's tiller.
It's a great paradox: at a time when the Australian economy is the envy of the outside world, with an unemployment rate of under 6 per cent, respectable growth and still untapped mineral resources, its citizens feel fundamentally insecure. They are worried about their jobs, their retirement income and the cost of living. They are worried, many of them, about asylum-seekers, who they see - however irrationally - as competing for work and public housing while exacerbating urban congestion. They are worried about soaring house prices, fearing their children will never be able to afford homes.
Against this background, the undoubted achievements of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard - including nearly a million new jobs, a disability insurance scheme and fairer funding for public schools - failed to resonate.
