I let my naivety run amok. Got quite excited at the thought.

Labor said it would cost $2.5 billion but the Libs said no, much less than that, plus an additional $400 million promised by new PM Tony Abbott.

After the election we never heard another thing. It just vanished. Yes, they've done a stack of upgrades on the Midlands, but the promise of a dual carriageway was writ large on billboards everywhere.

As voters, once every four years you get to call the shots. Don't squander it. They will promise everything but pin them down. Ask how, when, why and how much. Politicians are among the nation's finest when it comes to telling porkies.

In 1989 Labor leader Michael Field pledged no deal with the Greens, then, after the election, signed a detailed Accord with them to form a minority government.

Remember Julia Gillard's no carbon tax under a Government led by her but she caved into the Greens to run a minority government.

On the night before polling day in 2013 Tony Abbott surprised his minders by pledging no cuts to health, the ABC or SBS, and then promptly cut them.

The usual trick is to promise the earth, then on the Sunday after the election instruct Treasury to give an overview of the budget, and hey presto! The budget is shot to pieces so all the promises get shot to pieces as well.

In election campaigns they're like kids round a backyard swimming pool.

You can't take your eyes off them for a second.

It's worse this time because the pandemic has dispensed with disciplines you might recall, like budget surpluses and net debt.

The pandemic is a license to print money. They can promise the universe and call it economic recovery.

Remember Paul Keating's tax cuts, locked and loaded in L.A.W, and President George Bush Senior, who told Americans "Read my lips. No new taxes"?

Here's what you have to do.

When Peter Gutwein or Rebecca White rules out any deals with the Greens it's the right answer to the wrong question.

You should ask if they will they seek to form a minority government in a hung Parliament. Forget about no-deals pledges.

In 1996 Tony Rundle pressed on with minority government in a loose arrangement and the Greens, led by Christine Milne, acquiesced because she was experimenting with what she called "co-operative politics".

It lasted almost two years, helped along because the state was in no mood for politics after the Port Arthur massacre.

To simply rule out deals with the Greens is in effect not the same as ruling out minority government.

When the Libs promise legions of cranes and bulldozers to get the state moving, you have to ask what became of the Bridgewater Bridge, the Northern prison, the Newnham to West Tamar bridge, the Burnie ambulance station, an underground bus mall for Hobart, Macquarie Point, the TT-Line replacement schedule, a North Hobart light rail project and a fifth lane on Hobart's southern outlet.

These are flashy announcements that simply faded.

A common trick is to make a big announcement, like a record road program, then break it down into bite size announcements so in reality they are announcing the same program over and over again.

Some of these mega announcements just keep on giving and giving.

So don't let them get away with it.

If they come to your region with big announcements ask for a completion date, how many jobs, performance clauses in the contract and when will money show up in the budget.

After the election, periodically ask the Minister's office for an update.

Keep pestering them until you get results. Don't tolerate set-and-forget election promises.

I've saved the best till last. Read their lips when they say no new taxes or no increases in tax rates.

Don't let them con you by explaining that of course the taxes went up over the year, because this happens with say stamp duty and motor tax and payroll tax.

They're demand driven.

Ask will they increase the tax rates?

Naturally overall tax revenue will grow with inflation, but you want to know if they just changed the rules and the formula.

You need to ask them, are they prepared to rule out new taxes or any increases in tax rates?

I'm continually bewildered at how many times the media fail to ask this simple question.

Of course politicians will obfuscate with the answer but the objective is to get them on the record so they can't easily wriggle out of it later.

This is your finest, golden month.

This is the election campaign when you govern them, just for once every four years.

Don't blow it.