Of all the potent weapons we never expected to see draw blood from lifelong political battler Tony Abbott, ridicule was surely at the top of the list. Mr Abbott has effectively stood his ground against snide accusations of misogyny, has withstood vitriol about his religious beliefs and has remained steadfast against many of the trendy politically correct shibboleths of our day. He is a clichéd figure of hate to many on the left, who paint him, quite erroneously, as the love child of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher – despite the fact that as a hardcore right-wing warrior he fails abysmally to cut the mustard.

That Mr Abbott dropped his guard to such a reckless extent, whereby for several days he became a figure of fun far beyond the remits of twitter – or ‘electronic graffiti’ as he puts it – will no doubt haunt him for many months, if not years, to come. It is one thing to be feared, another to be reviled. But there is nothing worse than to be openly mocked.

Oddly, but perhaps not unsurprisingly, the extent of the near-universal ridicule and disbelief at his ‘captain’s pick’ of making a knight out of a duke is directly disproportionate to the sheer silliness and inanity of the actual act. Liberals must be gnashing their teeth in sheer frustration that Mr Abbott wasted so much political ‘skin’ over such a trite and unimportant issue – the awarding of a symbolic gong to somebody who certainly has no need or use for one – when there are so many other far more worthwhile conservative matters he could have gone out on a limb for and expended precious political capital on. 18C, for example. Or penalty rates.

It is futile Mr Abbott now attempting to ‘sell’ the decision. Regardless of the merits of the Duke of Edinburgh awards and Prince Philip’s service to this and other countries, the Queen’s husband has been extremely well rewarded for his efforts over a lifetime. Also, it was Mr Abbott himself who laid the ground-rules for his ‘knights and dames’ gongs: they’re for Aussies. Meanwhile, in the UK, as Rod Liddle pointed out last week in these pages, Britain hands out knighthoods to Muslim leaders who approve of death fatwas on writers. So Phil the Greek aint such a bad choice after all.

Mr Abbott will live to fight many more battles over the coming eighteen months. The two fronts where he should be at his strongest will determine the fate of his prime ministership, and of his government; namely, getting the budget firmly under control and securing our nation against the insidious threat of Islamism, here at home and in the longer run abroad.

In both fights he must prevail over determined opposition. The majority of his foot-soldiers and generals are strong performers, and when not making a royal goose of himself, Mr Abbott is a formidable, highly effective leader with a clear vision. Mr Abbott should now forget all about dukes and dames, and concentrate solely on sharpening the weapons in his arsenal to win both these critical battles.

Big hitter

The Australian Open, as always, has delighted with its mixture of high drama, human triumph and humiliating despair. For fans, this tournament goes from strength to strength; the quality of play, the excellent coverage by Seven, and the extraordinary array of international talent both on the courts and in the coaching stands.

Parallels with the world of politics are inescapable – upstarts challenge the established order, only to be brushed aside by seasoned campaigners. On the day Mr Abbott took one of the greatest poundings of his career, Rafael Nadal was ominously bundled out in three sets.

So it’s not altogether surprising that one of this government’s star players has a background in professional tennis. Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg could have been forgiven for taking two weeks out in his hometown of Melbourne to hang around the Rod Laver arena. Instead, he has almost single-handedly been slamming Labor’s blinding economic self-delusions and mendacity with a relentless volley of blistering articles and media appearances.

His powerful nine point serve in the Australian dismantled the feeble Andrew Leigh game play, where Leigh, among other nonsensical notions, had bizarrely offered up a re-introduction of Labor’s friendless carbon tax as a means of fixing the budget mess.

‘Leigh must be living in la-la-land,’ Frydenberg wrote, ‘to suggest Labor could wave a wand and produce a budget surplus by 2017-18. Last time Labor promised a surplus, it promised it 600 times, to no effect. ’

Championship stuff.