Our PM who has never been in the military copied the Bush fiasco of landing on a naval vessel with a sign that said mission accomplished. Of course our leader had to make do with a pretend jacket saying he was the PM and no mission was accomplished or undertaken but then again the Bush sign was wrong anyway, still is.

So why not wait till the vessel docked ? Why waste money on manpower and the helicopter when it was just a PR stunt ? After all Abbott could have watched the navy vessel enter the harbour from his Kirribilli residence and then taken the govt car and driver down to the docks.

On reflection a high vis vest would not be appropriate so I guess the pretend jacket that looks official is ok. After all he does not do any manual labour nor does he do any military work so the clothes are only stage props anyway. Even the ship is a stage prop that is needed to make the helicopter trip if it comes to that.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-03/tony-abbott-praises-comforting-presence-of-us-navy/6593352