If you haven’t already voted, tomorrow is your last chance. It’s one of those times when we might reflect on the fact that we get to choose who forms government. People in Ukraine are being killed as they fight to defend their country, their sovereignty. They don’t want leaders imposed on them.

If you believe the opinion polls, Labor is set to roll back into government. They could be right but I’ve been to too many rodeos to assume that is correct. It’s not that pollsters aren’t good at their jobs. Largely they are. But we’ve become a bit cunning and we’re a bit more careful about what we tell them.

We might be annoyed at a whole lot of things and drop a bucket on the government in any willing pollster’s ear. But come the polling booth – and the reality that our single vote could change us back to the previous government – we might think differently.

It would be ironic if the party that messed up the health system, ran it down to the point of ramping at emergency, built a hospital with too few beds and closed the Repat can get back into government promising to fix all that. Promises are thin air if they can’t be delivered.

In the car the other day, Labor ads kept promising they would get another 170 doctors and nurses. It’s pie in the sky. Victoria promised more doctors but they can’t find them. Yes, we are the land of milk and honey but the plain fact is, for skilled migrants, there’s a fair amount of competition between countries and between our states. Young doctors may see Canada or the UK as more attractive. Even if they choose Australia they might prefer Queensland. So the promise of many more doctors might be a pie in the sky.

I’m quite taken with the sheer effrontery of Labor saying they’d scrap the riverfront stadium and put the money into health. They built the new Adelaide Oval … they weren’t worried about putting that into health.

Now I hear Labor say they’ll fund promises by cuts to the public service, without cutting services. Pull the other one. Labor gave us the biggest public service of any state: it’s just laughable to think they’ll cut it back. It would be a good thing. I just don’t see them doing it.

There’s absolutely no political playbook where any of Labor’s commitments would be taken seriously.

It’s that uncertainty and volatility that makes politics such a tough and yet fascinating business.

Imagine we have a Ukrainian refugee here and they ask what’s happening. You explain that tomorrow we have an election. We have a government that has had one term in office. During their term in office unemployment has fallen, thousands more people have jobs. You mention that we are now the centre of new growth industries, space in particular. There are no longer more people leaving the state than arriving.

As for COVID management, we were kept safe without anything like the massive lockdowns that were imposed in Victoria and to a lesser extent in NSW. We have a growing economy. Then you mention that polling shows we are thinking of chucking this government out.

The shocked refugee asks if the Opposition we’re thinking of electing has a good record of economic management. Embarrassed, you reply that it doesn’t. Their budget was rated the worst of the State and Territories in Australia and that, now, it’s equal best with NSW. At this point, the refugee looks a bit confused. You just don’t know what to say.

It’s that uncertainty and volatility that makes politics such a tough and yet fascinating business. We thankfully do have a system where you and I choose our representatives in parliament and through that who forms government. Whatever choice we make therefore is the right choice. I have great confidence in a system that listens to voters.

If the Marshall government is tossed out it won’t be a decision I thought was smart. But sometimes you have to then ask yourself other questions. For example, if you got everything right and you still got booted, maybe the marketing people need a rethink.

My confidence in the collective will of South Australians will not be shattered into a million pieces if Labor wins. It will, however, be dented. Seriously, you win government, do a good job and the electorate puts back the wrecking team with a new frontman?

Despite what my husband says, I’m a bit careful with my money. I just don’t trust people who promise me a lot more and assure me I’m not the bunny paying for it.

Amanda Vanstone was a senator for South Australia for more than 20 years and a minister in the Howard Liberal Government. The former Ambassador to Italy presents the Counterpoint program on ABC Radio National.

Amanda Vanstone’s election commentary has been published in InDaily every Friday of the campaign, alongside a weekly contribution from former Labor Premier Mike Rann. Read his final column here.