Gladys Berejiklian had a problem. Her government was building roads, train lines, hospitals and schools across NSW. Unemployment was down. Economic growth was strong. But a crucial group of voters was oblivious or didn't care about the state election: 35- to 54-year-old women with children.

Unless the buttoned-up Premier could convince what Liberal officials had dubbed "working mothers" that their lives would be improved under the Coalition, Berejiklian would lose its parliamentary majority on March 23, and possibly government altogether. The Labor Party could take over a government with a clean balance sheet and and some $90 billion in infrastructure projects that it could claim credit for as they were finished over the following four years.