Closer to home, the Tweet Train was stopping at all stations to praise her ''go girl'' smackdown of Tony Abbott in Parliament.

Nevertheless, the Leader of the Opposition still reasoned it was safe to get back in the water and talk about sexism.

Addressing reporters in Canberra, Abbott argued that the government should stop playing the ''gender card''.

''[I] want to make the point that the Prime Minister should be prepared to accept fair criticism and just because the Prime Minister has sometimes been the victim of unfair criticism doesn't mean that she can dismiss any criticism as sexism,'' he said.

That'll assuage people's gender concerns and make them go away, right? Well, now that you mention it, at first blush, Abbott's advice appeared to have been heeded.

When the House gathered for question time, it was if Tuesday's pyrotechnics had never happened.

For one thing, a certain P. Slipper was nowhere to be seen.

He now had a spot on the crossbenches - with a great view of the Speaker's chair - but it was unclaimed real estate.

For another, the Opposition went back to talking about the carbon tax - the chestnut that's so old they now flog it in antique shops next to the Louis XVI commodes.

The Government was equally busy with old nuts of their own. Namely, the Coalition's ''reckless negativity'' and how the Australian economy continues to ''walk tall'' in the world.

But as question time progressed there were a few hints that the sexism storm was still on the brain. Gillard - who usually keeps Abbott's cross-table heckles to herself - embarked on a new policy of broadcasting his comments.

''The Leader of the Opposition just referred to me as a 'piece of work','' she informed the House. ''I require that to be withdrawn.''

Christopher Pyne also took issue with Anthony Albanese calling Coalition MP Scott Buchholz ''a good bloke''.

''Madam Speaker … the Leader of the House described the Member for Wright as a 'bloke,''' Pyne observed. ''I put it to you that if I described one of the members over there as a 'sheila' I would be accused of making a sexist remark, so I ask him to withdraw it!''

Speaking of blokes, at 2.44pm, Slipper arrived with an official-looking nod in the direction of Anna Burke. You would have missed him if not for the fanfare of camera whirs and snaps.The Member for Fisher took his place on the outer edge of the crossbenches, far from the two independents who insisted he voluntarily resign and a row behind Craig Thomson. He then proceeded to look glumly into his lap and play with his phone. One assumes he wasn't sending any texts.