And lest anyone doubt that the leaking of details about unpleasant disputes between ministers was accurate, one of the ministers, Eric Abetz, demonstrated he hadn't read the memo. Prime Minister Tony Abbott climbs over a fence during his visit to a Yass cattle farm. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Senator Abetz confirmed on radio that, yes indeed, there were those - not him, you understand - who were "gutless" enough to put themselves in breach of the rules and whisper stories that would appear unattributed in the media. Marvellously, he suggested journalists shouldn't listen to such scoundrels. "If somebody is gutless and in breach of the rules, one really wonders why a journalist even bothers to repeat comments from such an individual," he said, displaying an endearing guilelessness concerning the way things work in the political-media relationship.

Here is a hint: politicians who know stuff tell reporters who merrily splash it all over the internet, the front pages of newspapers and the radio and TV bulletins, thus making their editors very happy indeed, which is how reporters stay employed. This process also endears certain journalists to certain unnamed politicians and vice versa. Everyone's happy. Prime Minister Tony Abbott climbs over the fence during his visit to the Bellevale Homestead Cattle Yard in Yass. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Well, not everyone. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, you might recall, wanted it known on Tuesday that he was so cross about the leaking of stories that demonstrated half his ministers loathed the other half, that he had "read the riot act" to cabinet. Prime Minister Tony Abbott views cattle during his visit to the Bellevale Homestead Cattle Yard in Yass. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Everyone was instructed to put a cork in it and to "stay on script or else", by which the Prime Minister meant, apparently, for MPs to mouth the words "jobs" and "growth" whenever anyone looked sideways at them. With special dispensation, the more erudite might be allowed to discuss the government's war on "lawfare", which is the new buzzword for dreadful environmental activists trying to use the law to stop things like coal mines. His riot act read, and the confidential briefing note circulated, Mr Abbott hauled on his R.M. Williams and set off for the bucolic landscape of Yass, where he climbed the fence of a cattle yard to be photographed among milling bovines - a not-altogether unusual experience for a prime minister - and talked about jobs and growth while standing up to his ankles in bulldust. Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Minister for Trade and Investment, Andrew Robb at the Bellevale Homestead Cattle Yard in Yass. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen All the beasts in the yard with him chewed their cuds contentedly, offering nothing at all to the journalists peering through the fence. How he must have wished to stay there.