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Spend a morning on the hustings with Julie Bishop and it is quickly apparent why she's the minister in hottest demand among Liberal candidates.
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On a chilly street corner near Blacktown's Main Street, the Liberal hopeful in Greenway, Yvonne Keane, is huddled with her campaign manager waiting for the Foreign Minister to arrive for a street walk. Ms Bishop steps out of a white government Tarago, throws an arm around Ms Keane and peppers her with questions as they walk towards the main shopping strip.
"Yvonne, great to see you, how is everything going, how is the family?" So it goes for the next hour, the minister stopping to chat with store-owners and passers-by, dispensing hugs, high-wattage smiles and pats on shoulders like some kind of campaign fairy godmother. Every second person she meets here is of migrant origin - Thomas from Kenya, Silva from Syria, Kennedy Troe with two-year-old daughter Marie in tow from Liberia.
Ms Bishop is political catnip in western Sydney, where several key marginal seats hang in the balance. Her portfolio boosts her profile in immigrant communities like this. But what mainly comes across, says Ms Keane, is that she's "extraordinarily warm in person. And very generous to other women, which I hugely admire".
Ms Bishop insists that her "tactile" (her word) approach to campaigning comes naturally. "I love meeting people, I get hugged and I'm very comfortable hugging back. It's not something I've contrived."
And while everyone else might be complaining about the interminable length of the campaign, Ms Bishop claims to have enjoyed it. "I'm energised by it." She's avoided a dose of the Turnbull flu and still squeezes in a 6am run most mornings, except when there's an early flight to catch. Breakfast is invariably muesli and yoghurt with berries but unlike predecessor Bob Carr, and despite her tiny frame, she is no diet-obsessive: "I'm not a fussy eater," she says.
Her campaign schedule has been relentless. She has visited more than 70 electorates since the campaign starting gun was fired, and insists she would have done more if she could – "I'm just sorry I can't respond to every request that I've received in this campaign."
This willingness to push the boat out for as many MPs and candidates as possible is key to her near decade-long hold on the party's coveted deputy leadership. Bishop, against the odds, has kept a lock on it through a succession of leadership spills, from Brendan Nelson, to Malcolm Turnbull, to Tony Abbott and Turnbull again. Asked about rumours that Abbott ally Peter Dutton might put his hand up for the role after the election, she is politely dismissive.
"It's a vote of the party room, which is why I haven't run in the past on a ticket with Malcolm or Brendan or Tony. I ran separately as deputy, and on each occasion the party room backed me."
Ms Bishop stakes a claim to being as integral to the government's economic agenda as any of her ministerial colleagues. She was "no less relevant to the Turnbull government's jobs and growth plan than other ministers in charge of domestic economic areas" she told the Lowy Institute in Sydney recently, running through how she and her department had supported the quest for closer ties with trading partners around the world.
It was, perhaps, a way of shaking off the last vestiges of her dubious record as shadow treasurer, a post she left after just five months in early 2009 under pressure from colleagues who thought she was not up to the job. She moved to foreign affairs where she has grown in stature ever since.
I get hugged and I'm very comfortable hugging back
But the globe doesn't stop for an Australian election campaign.
In the second week of the campaign, Ms Bishop had to take four days out to fly to Vienna to ensure Canberra's place at a meeting of the International Syria Support Group. Australia had been left off the invitation list for the first meeting, but she was determined she would be there for the next.
She made personal representations to US secretary of state John Kerry and fired up her diplomatic corps to lobby other members. "Ultimately; I prevailed," she says.
She flew out of Australia on a Sunday night, arrived on Monday night, attended the meeting on Tuesday and flew home again on Wednesday, ready to hit the campaign trail by Friday morning in Melbourne. "I'm afraid I don't have the luxury of doing jetlag," she says.
The fashion-loving Ms Bishop is a social media adept who will ham it up readily on commercial radio or TV shows such as The Project.
But her campaign has not been flawless. A low point was her inability to explain the impact of the government's superannuation changes on the the Transition to Retirement Scheme when she was bailed up on the issue by Melbourne radio's Neil Mitchell.
Even now, she refuses to concede it was a fumble. "That happens," she says, in a chillier tone. "I don't expect to be over the detail of every single initiative in the budget papers ... I didn't want to say something that was wrong so I thought: 'Oh, no, it's better just to say I'll leave it'. But I didn't see it as a stumble in the sense that I [didn't state] the wrong answer."
There is an uncanny symmetry between Ms Bishop, who turns 60 next month, and her 46-year old Labor counterpart Tanya Plibersek: both deputies, both presenting Australia's face to the world, both calm voices on the national stage with possible leadership aspirations. There is rivalry between them but not, Ms Bishop insists, animus.
"She has been elected by her party room and I have respect for all women who take on leadership roles," she says.
Yet she cannot match the younger woman on issues like same-sex marriage, where Ms Bishop's old-school party instincts kick in. "I'll let the Australian people have their say, I've never thought it was an issue where I should impose my particular view on others," she says.
As for her relationship with Tony Abbott since his toppling, she insists: "There wasn't a reconciliation to be had ... I've been in communication with him. We text."
Have they had a face-to-face sit-down? "Well, I rarely did when he was leader, so no, I haven't," she answers.
It is not easy for Ms Bishop to align her life with that of her partner of nearly two years, the former vineyard owner David Panton. "I live in Perth and have a place in Canberra; he has a place in Sydney and Melbourne, so we keep in touch," she says. Nor will there be time to rest when the campaign is over. She rattles off half-a-dozen international commitments she faces in July, should the Coalition be returned. But this week, at least, she gets to stick to her home state. "It will be great to spend some time at home; I will unpack my suitcase for a few days, anyway."