Abbott's slips and gaffes

A SELECTION OF ABBOTT SLIPS AND GAFFES:

* PRINCE PHILIP KNIGHTMARE: A joke, crazy, a bolt from the blue. Whatever you want to call it, Abbott's decision to knight the Duke of Edinburgh left him battered and bruised. Even conservative media commentators turned on the prime minister, who later admitted it was a "stuff-up" that would fail the pub test.

* SHIRTFRONTING PUTIN: Responding to Russia's less-than-helpful attitude following the downing of MH17, a frustrated Abbott blurted out he would "shirtfront" President Vladimir Putin at an upcoming G20 meeting. The actual definition of shirtfront depends on which football code you follow. In AFL it means to shoulder charge, elsewhere it implies grabbing someone by the front of the shirt aggressively. The world-wide response reeked of ridicule and prompted some entertaining online picture montages of a shirtless, rugged Putin and a budgie-smuggler-wearing Abbott.

* THE PHONE-SEX WORKER WINK: In a wink of an eye, Abbott became an internet sensation for his response to a phone-sex worker who called ABC talkback radio to complain about rising costs. Caught on camera winking to host Jon Faine before addressing the caller's concerns, Abbott earned the title "creep" on social media. In Abbott's defence it was radio, although he appeared to have forgotten an important rule of politics - someone is always watching.

* THE SUPPOSITORY OF ALL WISDOM: This unfortunate gaffe, delivered to a room of Liberal faithfuls during the 2013 election campaign, conjures up all sorts of images. Abbott declared: "No one, however smart, however well-educated, however well experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom." What he probably meant was repository. The linguistic fumble resulted in honorary website thesuppositroyofallwisdom.com, created purely to spit out Abbott quotes.

* FIONA SCOTT'S SEX APPEAL: Just one day after the suppository mix-up, Abbott relied on an interesting quality to link Fiona Scott, then Liberal candidate for the western Sydney seat Lindsay, and her predecessor Jackie Kelly. He told media they both had "a bit of sex appeal". Abbott played it down as exuberance and later dubbed it a daggy dad moment.

* NOT-BAD-LOOKING DAUGHTERS: In the final days of the 2013 election campaign, Abbott made a last-ditch plea to voters via the cast of reality show Big Brother. In a message to housemates, Abbott told them to vote for the "guy with the not-bad-looking daughters". It might have helped him get elected, but when you're prime minister relying on the looks of your daughters probably won't cut it.

* S*** HAPPENS: Years before Abbott took the title of prime minister, a somewhat insensitive comment in Afghanistan landed the then opposition leader in hot water. While talking to soldiers about the loss of their comrade, Abbott said sometimes s*** happens. The gaffe was compounded in a subsequent interview when Abbott was asked to explain the comments. His reaction of 24 awkward seconds of silence made for compelling viewing.