Not a great week for Tony Abbott, despite being No 1

Despite passing Kevin Rudd in volume for the second time this year, largely owing to wall-to-wall iron man coverage on Sunday (That’s the first time I’ve ever heard hourly sporting updates on ABC Classic FM … and I still can’t understand why), not a great week for Tony Abbott — with Minchin’s departure, having to swallow the Joyce mistake and a bad Newspoll perhaps leaving him wishing he was still out in the surf.

The Barnaby Joyce rhetoric has become a lot less bolshie from the “I might consider a shadow portfolio if it’s the right one” days, as Senator Minchin adds to the list of senior Howard ministers who find the rigours of Opposition more than a little tiresome and clearly see little prospect of an early return to the right side of the chair. An undoubtedly bad optic for the leader he backed in.

The other two main movers Malcolm Turnbull on the back of a somewhat bizarre offer to return to the frontbench (relevance deprivation can do strange things) and Chris Evans as the asylum seeker issue pushes its way back into the news.

Tony Abbott in four months has been the subject of more talkback calls than Malcolm Turnbull was in his entire time as Opposition Leader. He clearly has secured the base. The purpose of doing that in a country that has compulsory voting remains beyond me. I’m sure Nick Minchin will illuminate me now that he has more spare time.

Who could possibly have known? And I always thought he was Quentin Crisp’s great dark man…