PERHAPS it's part of the "safe seat syndrome" - in which the major parties are accused by their critics of ignoring the region - but prime ministerial visits to the Hunter are generally few and far between, and more so outside of declared election periods.
Even if we included John Howard's regular escapes to Hawks Nest during his years in office, the tally would still be modest.
So it would be remiss of us not to wonder what is happening, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison's office confirmed that the nation's leader will be in the region on Monday, just five months after he was here in September to announce the Kurri Kurri gas turbine project, among other engagements.
All the PM's office would confirm was that the trip was related to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, based at Williamtown - a convenient destination for the PM, whose Boeing 737 is based at Canberra with the RAAF's 34 Squadron.
Williamtown is central to Australia's defence force capability, its importance growing steadily over the decades since it was established by the RAAF.
Indeed, as the 80th anniversary of the base falls on Monday, February 15 - a week after Mr Morrison's visit - it is hard to imagine the PM visiting Williamtown without official recognition of those historic WWII beginnings.
Mr Morrison opened his political year on Monday with a speech to the National Press Club that outlined five "priority areas" for 2021.
The first three were COVID-19, economic recovery and the "essential services that Australians rely on". Number five - "care for our country" - was the environment.
China's outlook and the nature of Chinas external engagement, both in our region and globally, has changed since our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership was formed [in 2014] and going further back than that, certainly in the decades that have led up till now. We cannot pretend that things are as they were. The world has changed.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the National Press Club
But it was priority number four - to "protect and secure Australians' interests in a challenging world" - that will most interest a defence-oriented audience at Williamtown.
After stressing a need for "co-operation between like-minded liberal democracies", Mr Morrison's press club speech turned, inevitably, to China, and its relations with the United States.
We have a foot in both camps, as everyone knows.
Mr Morrison wants a dialogue with China "focused not on concessions but on areas of mutual benefit".
At the end of the day, however, it's the "evolution of the United States' relationship with China" - to quote the PM - that will "shape the geopolitical environment", and for some time to come.
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