Tony Abbott may have lost the prime ministership, but he'll never, it seems, lose his fondness for a spot of shirt-fronting.

Who better than an audience of Australian-Ukrainians to hear this glad news?

Mr Abbott, who has seemed less than entirely thrilled in recent weeks to have had the burden of prime ministership removed from his shoulders, was clearly delighted on Tuesday to be invested in Melbourne with the inaugural Freedom Award by the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations.

This was, of course, not a celebration of his freedom from the onus of high office.