Abbott chastises Greer over nip quip

Tony Abbott has chastised Germaine Greer for joking that the foreign minister bare her breasts to save two Australians from execution in Indonesia.

"We ought to be conducting ourselves like a mature adult country," the prime minister told reporters in Kalgoorlie on Tuesday.

Mr Abbott was responding to an exchange between Ms Greer and Julie Bishop during ABC Television's Q&A on Monday night.

Ms Bishop was asked if she would ever get her top off in public to make a point just like the Free The Nipple campaign in the US.

It was not something she'd ever had the desire to do online, she said, prompting Ms Greer to ask: "What if it got you the commutation of the life (sic) sentences for two Australians?"

Ms Bishop was left shaking her head, saying: "Please don't go there Germaine, please don't go there."