Go behind the scenes on the federal election campaign trail with reporter

This is what you don't see on the TV. Mikaela Mulveney spent three days on the federal election campaign trail with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and this is what she saw.

I joined Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s campaign trail for several days as he electioneered across the country and let’s just say chaos is the only constant while on board the bus.

Nothing could quite prepare me for the intense bubble that journalists along with TV crews and photographers find themselves in for more than a month and there’s a lot that goes on behind the camera.

One of the more exciting – or perhaps stressful – aspects of the campaign trail is the fact that you have little to no idea where you are going or what the day has in store.

For Dutton’s travelling media pack, you receive a cryptic message the night before telling you to board the bus at this place and this time and if you’re lucky you’ll get little hints such as “we’re flying first” or “wear enclosed shoes”.

While being for security reasons, it doesn’t stop reporters from attempting to draw information out of the leader’s team who travel with the media, but are usually met with no real answer.

You have very little interaction with the politicians themselves outside the events of the day, which is quite different from previous campaigns where reporters would fly in the same planes as the Prime Minister.

Courier Mail reporter Mikaela Mulveney on the media bus to cover Peter Dutton’s movements during the Federal Election. Picture: Mikaela Mulveney

When you do happen to fly – sometimes multiple times in a day – you really receive the flashy treatment.

There’s no need to go through security as the buses pull onto the tarmac, sometimes at your normal domestic airport, other times at RAAF bases, where you step straight onto the awaiting aircraft set to fly you to another mystery location.

I’ve come across my fair share of media scrums involving TV crews and photographers, but during an election campaign they become a brand new beast as they go to battle to get those shots of Dutton.

While the cameras are duelling for the perfect angles of the most mundane activities – such as using a drill at a trade college – the journalists are on the leaders’ heels as they attempt to catch every word in case the leader drops a colourful remark.

Usually press conferences involving the competitive members of the Canberra press gallery are no walk in the park as they fight each other to voice the next question.

But instead of the cutthroat media scrum, this campaign both leaders have chosen to adopt a ‘lets go around the circle’ approach.

Peter Dutton pats a cow and spruiks his passion to support agriculture on the Federal Election campaign trail. Picture: Mikaela Mulveney

Some days it fails to work, but for most of my time on this campaign this has left journalists one golden question with follow ups or a second question almost impossible – I soon learned the leaders call all the shots.

You also need to be prepared to file stories from wherever – on a bus, on the ground or even on the plane – but between writing, live crosses and following the leaders around journalists hardly have the time to eat and sleep, let alone go to the bathroom.

Snacks and pub food is basically all the media live off for weeks on end and unless you’re lucky to get in a solid breakfast, you likely won’t be eating a proper meal until 3pm.

The only exception is when you’re on a flight longer than 40 minutes, these charter planes are a godsend for eating a decent meal.

As someone who is always caught up in a 24 hour news cycle, returning to my normal office life was surprisingly jarring, but I’ve never been more grateful for the ‘slow’ lifestyle.

For those left on the bus, only one more week to go!

Originally published as Go behind the scenes on the federal election campaign trail with reporter