Fiery PM turns tables on a hapless Abbott

If that is really the case, then his nightmare arrived when Julia Gillard marched into question time on Thursday, immediately after a fiery press conference where she spent more than an hour defending her integrity.

The result? She was on fire. And then, the Opposition Leader handed her an opportunity to pillory him.

This was a big turnaround from his campaign against her honesty about the carbon tax. Doubtless that will return, but this weekend, the PM knows she won the parliamentary bout. In question time, Gillard taunted Abbott for apparently not reading the BHP Billiton briefing document about the decision to mothball a $30 billion expansion to its Olympic Dam mine, before he did a television interview.

If Abbott had read it, he would have found that the company boss Marius Kloppers contradicted Abbott's assertions that the carbon and mining taxes were responsible for the decision.

Well, had he or hadn't he read the document?

He appeared to tell the ABC he hadn't.

Question: ''Have you actually read BHP's statement?'' Answer: ''No''.

That seemed pretty clear, but the interviewer persisted: ''But hang on, no, no, you haven't read their statements today … '' Abbott did not correct the interviewer.

The exchange with Leigh Sales was the low point in a shocker of a week for Abbott.

After enduring a rampant PM during question time, he stood at the dispatch box to say he had been misrepresented. He said his ''no'' on television was a denial of the assertion that the interviewer was making about the statement by Kloppers.

The sections of the transcript reproduced above do not support his assertion.

The big issue hanging over Parliament all week, but not mentioned in the chamber, was the on-line campaign against the PM over her time as a lawyer when she did some legal work for her then boyfriend, a union official.

Last weekend, Abbott's view was that it would be a good idea if Gillard fronted Parliament to give a full explanation of the circumstances.

But when Parliament sat, the Coalition ignored the issue and the PM dismissed media questions about it. The Australian dug up a transcript of an interview between Gillard and her then employers at Slater & Gordon, which kept the ball rolling.

The PM had clearly thought the mainstream media would not respond to what she later said was an appalling and sexist campaign being waged on the internet, including by old cartoonist and conspiracy theorist Larry Pickering.

In particular, News Ltd had been burned on this previously. It had been forced to retract details of an article concerning this issue. The Australian sacked one of its columnists for his story.

That's why the PM jumped decisively when the Australian repeated, on Thursday, the allegation that Gillard had, as a lawyer, set up a trust fund for her then boyfriend.

The anger of the PM at being defamed was palpable. The Australian published a correction online very quickly, with no qualifications.

Up until that point, there was speculation that Gillard might hang on too long before responding, as she did with the Craig Thomson affair. In that case, she had in mind the presumption of innocence. When she finally made her decision to dump the MP from the Labor Party, she overrode those concerns, and took the issue out of the spotlight. This time, she blasted the conspiracists with the full force of her justifiable anger. The words ''highly defamatory'' tell the mainstream media to be careful.

It has no effect on the lunar right and Gillard has identified a trend towards the Americanisation of political debate, ''this eccentric lunar right Tea-Party-style interventions that we are seeing in our politics''.

Her conclusion is that it's like wrestling smoke. ''There is nothing that a person of reason can do to deal with it. The best thing I think you can do is just ignore it because I suspect giving it any attention gives them some satisfaction.''

The PM says she did only some legal work towards setting up a union legal entity, not its actual establishment. However, one reason that News Ltd won't let go is because Gillard used the term ''slush fund'' in the interview with her law firm colleagues. She said this week: ''My understanding is that the purpose of the association was to support the re-election of a team of union officials and their pursuit of the policies that they would stand for re-election on.''

Abbott has to decide if he will stand on the sidelines, suggesting wrongdoing, or put up a case. He suggests the PM has questions to answer. He refuses to say what those questions are. Pointedly, he refuses to put any questions to the PM in Parliament.

Of course he is not going to let go of this bone because he can needle Gillard. ''Whether or not she was an untrustworthy lawyer is not the issue. I think this Prime Minister is an untrustworthy head of government,'' he says. But this lack of decisiveness to put up or shut up undermines Abbott's credibility and puts the focus back on him, which inevitably returns to his performance under pressure. The ABC interview and being thrown out of question time are the latest examples.

In question time, Abbott snipes across the dispatch box at Gillard when she or another minister is speaking. This annoys Labor MPs, who say they receive regular feedback from constituents on Abbott's perceived negativity towards women.

After Abbott defied the female Deputy Speaker, Labor's Tanya Plibersek remarked that Abbott's behaviour in the chamber was markedly different under Anna Burke's supervision than when Peter Slipper or Harry Jenkins occupied the chair.

One Labor MP said yesterday Abbott ''comes across as a bully and someone who always exaggerates''.

The Opposition Leader used the second trait to good effect as he ramped up the campaign against the carbon tax, highlighting Gillard's broken promise and the dangers that he saw to the economy.

He was winning the psychological war for months, just as Labor did when it railed against the GST before its introduction.

As the election nears, Abbott will come under pressure to move from negativity and a ''small target'' strategy if, that is, Labor continues to claw back ground in the polls.

The Coalition thinks Gillard can't win the election because voters have already made up their minds. Even some Labor MPs are worried about the ''turn off'' factor when the PM speaks.

But voters saw the PM throw the script aside this week and speak from the heart. She pulled off a good performance by taking on the issue of her credibility head-on.

She was ready to explode with anger but kept it under control, focused and directed, as cold as steel.

Now Labor waits for the next poll.

Ross Peake is Political Editor.

Twitter: rosspeakeCT