Labor's stunt exposed: Abbott visits Afghanistan

Why am I completely unsurprised? Tony Abbott has just left Afghanistan, where he talked to our troops on a visit he arranged weeks ago. Abbott had been forbidden to discuss his plans for security reasons. So what does this say about the cynical and irresponsible attempts by Labor and the media last week to make it seem that feckless Abbott was refusing to go - when Julia Gillard knew full well of his plans? Study this case and learn how despicably politics is now played, and how seeming trumps doing. UPDATE Readers in comments below wonder if this was a lie: JULIA Gillard has denied deliberately leaking word that Tony Abbott passed up an invitation to accompany her on a visit to Afghanistan… Ms Gillard said she was unaware of how word got out about Mr Abbott’s non-attendance, and that she was not aware herself that he had a solo visit to Afghanistan, already locked in. ”Your suggestion that he had a fixed date to go (to Afghanistan) when I issued the invitation to him is not correct,” she told reporters in Brussels.