Not as hard for Tony to get on his knees Foxy.
All that bike riding gets him in position to both do that at back peddle at speed.

He even apologised in a dinner speech ..Interesting times lie ahead.
Foxy,
Indeed, here simply is no comparison with Rudd. Abbott will improve our economy whereas Rudd, well, we've seen what he achieved or rather the lack of it.

Belly,
yes, much better to peddle back than plunging head-first like Rudd don't you think ?

But, individual, Abbott only put on his wimpy act for the benefit of the Indonesians (who I'm sure will now have it confirmed how shifty and disingenuous he is)

Here's big tough guy, Morrison, revealing Abbott's "back-pedalling" was all a bit of theatre for the occasion, as Tony has bit of trouble sticking to his guns when he's forced to rely on more than tacky slogans - especially when confronted with an event of this magnitude..

From ABC News:

"Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says there will be no change to Australia's border protection policies despite an apparent softening in the Prime Minister's language around the issue earlier this week.

Some media had questioned whether Tony Abbott's comments in Indonesia signalled the Coalition was abandoning its plan to buy asylum seeker boats from Indonesian fishermen.

Questions had also been raised about whether the Government was still committed to turning asylum seeker boats back to Indonesia.

"I wish to stress that the full arsenal of measures represented in the Coalition's policies to stop the boats remain available to be deployed by the Government," Mr Morrison said."

Funny how Lib apologist, Andrew Bolt, claims that the Libs never had a tow back policy.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_the_abc_frames_tony_abbott/

Abbott said:

"....Can I just scotch this idea that the Coalition’s policy is or ever has been tow-backs..."

Not according to then Shadow Justice Minister, Michael Keenan, in 2011 who waxes lyrical on the merits of "towing the boats back":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a55I1Vz5EWk

More lies and spin from the Coalition.

Best get used to it Poirot, its the only policy I have ever seen from them in my lifetime.