Every morning that parliament sits in Canberra, reporters congregate outside to quiz arriving politicians on the issues of the day, especially useful for the electronic media which acquires fresh vision for morning bulletins.
For the politicians, this can also be useful, giving them to opportunity to push their particular line. Newcomers can gain more of a profile.
It's not just politicians who front up at "doors", one day in mid-February a colourful cockatoo-like character appeared, sporting a bleached mohawk hairstyle and a proffering a message.
This was Darryn Lyons, a former London paparazzo and Celebrity Big Brother contestant who's now the mayor of Geelong, in town to press government to direct some of the work for Land 400 - new armoured vehicles - his way, perhaps making use of Geelong's soon to be vacated Ford plant.
"It would be a wonderful place. We just don't want to have a dead Ford sitting on the side of the road as you enter Geelong," he said.
That same week, into the parliament building trooped a delegation of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union led by assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson and including workers from the Forgacs, BAE and ASC shipyards.
They wanted government action to bridge the "valley of death", distributing a booklet outlining the looming demise of the shipbuilding sector and calling for prompt action on new ship projects to save jobs.
The government is certainly hearing much the same from companies, from state premiers, their own MPs and probably also from other local government representatives less flamboyant but just as concerned about the plight of their constituents as Darryn Lyons. It’s not just ships. As factories close, more and more communities see defence projects of any kind as a ray of sunlight.
But on ships in particular, your correspondent can't but agree with ASPI analyst Andrew Davies who said the "political buy-in" meant the shipbuilding sector was as good as saved.
People might not much like the to see Ford, Holden and Toyota close down but seem to accept the government's message that it simply can't keep bailing out companies which have already soaked up vast sums of taxpayer cash.
That doesn't apply so well to the shipbuilders because the government is their customer, it plans to buy a lot more ships a few years hence and has the power to save a very large number of jobs simply by bringing forward some of this work.
Only during the election campaign did Labor seem to twig, with Kevin Rudd promising to step up consideration of a replacement for the navy's two supply ships, the elderly HMAS Success and the younger HMAS Sirius.
So far the coalition hasn't yet gone that far and there was some vague hope Defence Minister David Johnston might gladden the industry execs gathered at the ADM congress in Canberra with an announcement. It was not to be.
"We have no money," he declared.
However, he did acknowledge he was very aware of the issues and working on a plan, albeit one with significant challenges.
It's hard to dispute his assertion that the reason he's stuck with this one is proof of Labor inaction over the previous six years.
So what about Kevin Rudd's election campaign plan to bring forward replacements to Success and Sirius?
Here's Defence Department Secretary Dennis Richardson in recent Senate estimates committee hearing:
"If the so-called valley of death was to be avoided entirely through the build of these two ships, then decisions should have been made 18 months ago and more. Decisions were not made and therefore it is not possible to avoid the totality of some of the downward movement that is possible in 2015."
And there's more:
"As a matter of fact not opinion, it is not possible to eliminate entirely the so-called valley of death. Decisions were simply not made in time to avoid that. What can be done is to minimise the impact and that is what is being worked through at the moment."
Defence Minister David Johnston wasn't making any promises.
"Defence is not an industry assistance agency but we do have a long-term requirement for naval shipbuilding. The task that is confronting the government without much money is to marry up the long-term requirement with the short term needs of employment. That is an ongoing battle."
On current indications, the government will reveal its plan in the first quarter next year when it releases the new Defence White Paper and the Defence Capability Plan.
Of the three shipbuilders heading into the valley of death, Newcastle shipbuilder Forgacs is teetering closest to the edge. Company CEO Lindsay Stratton told reporters on the sidelines of the ADM Congress there will be no choice but to lay off 900 skilled workers by the end of next year as Air Warfare Destroyer hull block construction work ends.
Forgacs would settle for anything - patrol boats, supply ships - but a fourth AWD would be best, allowing seamless continuity until other projects arrive.
With 900 jobs in the balance in the Hunter, in electorates held by Labor and Liberal MPs, the government will face growing pressure and may have to come up with a plan a whole lot sooner than next year.
But that raises another issue - how much should force structure issues be swayed by political considerations? In other words, will defence get the kit it needs and the taxpayers the best value for money in these circumstances.
If the navy really needed a fourth AWD, it could have mounted an irresistible case well before the option expired in 2008. Indisputably, the navy needs new supply ships but could certainly source them cheaper and sooner from Spain.
Your correspondent well recalls a proposed procurement deal at the height of the Keating government love-in with Indonesia. There was much talk of joint acquisitions and it was proposed we buy Indonesian-made CN-235 aircraft as Caribou replacements.
This aircraft may well have done the job. But there was certainly a growing sense that this was more about advancing relations with Indonesia than providing the best possible tactical transport aircraft for the Australian Defence Force.
CN-235 went on the shortlist in 1997 but vanished during the protracted procurement process which only concluded in 2012 with the decision to buy Alenia C-27J Spartan.
