After nearly three months hunkered down in their electorates, Labor and Coalition MPs have descended on Canberra for their first full party room meetings since Parliament rose back in June.
And what a topsy turvy day this will prove to be for the major political parties.
The man who ''lost'' the election, Tony Abbott has been hailed as the conquering hero by an elated Coalition joint party room.
He then introduced one by one the many new Liberal and National MPs who defeated Labor incumbents, including the first indigenous lower house MP, Ken Wyatt, and the youngest-ever federal MP, the 20-year-old Wyatt Roy.
The woman who ''won'' the election, Julia Gillard, was greeted with whoops and congratulations from Labor MPs. New Labor MPs - including the first Muslim member Ed Husic – were also formally welcomed, although this was a less time-consuming item of business than down the corridor in the Opposition party room.
But despite the air kisses for Gillard at the start of the Labor caucus meeting, once the party room doors were closed, she would have presumably warned her comrades of the enormous challenges to come.
Gillard's overarching challenge for the next three years - if the minority government lasts that long - is to acquire the mantle of political legitimacy after the deadlocked election result.
If yesterday's first day wobbles between the new government and the independent MPs over tax policy are a sign of things to come, Gillard and other senior ministers will struggle to manage the political agenda.
For some time to come, any utterances by the two independent MPs, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, which do not gel perfectly with the government's policy positions, will be parsed as signs of instability and uncertainty.
The government will not be able to send ministers out into the news cycle to slap down the independents.
But the independents also have a tricky balance to learn between formulating their own positions on policy issues and causing minor political panic by thinking out loud.
For Windsor and Oakeshott have staked their own local reputations on the risky decision to back Labor.
If it doesn't work out for Labor, it presumably won't work out for the independents.
After today's meetings wrap up, one of the immediate tasks for Gillard and Abbott will be assembling their new frontbenches.
There are tricky problems lurking here for both leaders, which are exacerbated by the tight numbers in the parliament, putting a premium on maintaining internal discipline.
Gillard has a factional mismatch between vacancies and candidates for ministerial positions.
There are at least three vacancies as a result of the resignation of Lindsay Tanner, and the decisions of John Faulkner and Alan Griffin to move to the backbench.
But all three of these vacancies come from Labor's Left faction while the up and comers in the Labor caucus, like Victorian MP Bill Shorten, come from the Right.
Then there is her promise to accommodate the man she toppled from the leadership, Kevin Rudd, (also from the Right) with a Cabinet position.
Rudd has his eyes on foreign affairs but that would require Gillard to push aside Stephen Smith.
Meanwhile on the Coalition side, Liberal MPs are already plotting over the carve-up of the non-spoils of opposition. A mini-push from Andrew Robb to challenge Julie Bishop for the position of Liberal Party deputy leader has been shelved.
But there will be three main issues for Abbott when he selects his frontbench in coming days.
Firstly, the economic team of shadow treasurer and shadow finance minister. Will he hold anyone accountable for the coalition's election costings schemozzle which was a factor in the independents' decision to back Labor.
Then there is the communications portfolio.
Attacking the government's National Broadband Network was a central part of Abbott's political strategy. Yet the opposition went into the election campaign without a policy. When it finally released one, it struggled to articulate an alternative.
Finally, like Gillard, Abbott has the quandary of what to do with his predecessor. He has promised Malcolm Turnbull a senior frontbench position.
There has been speculation Turnbull could be slotted into communications. But the former Liberal leader may have his eye on the shadow treasury post.
It's a topsy turvy world indeed where one of the trickiest problems for two incumbent leaders is how to accommodate the victims of their ascensions.
Mark Davis is the national editor of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
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