At last the government was seen to be behaving like a government; taking the lead in the response to the dangerous task of recovering victims and investigating the causes.

The fate of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is Tony Abbott's Port Arthur. Just as the Tasmanian massacre defined John Howard's leadership in his early years, so has an atrocity in Europe finally exposed the leader in Tony Abbott, at a time when his unfair, horror budget had threatened to engulf him.

The government has been its own worst enemy. If anyone could sell a tough budget Treasurer Joe Hockey could, but he did himself no favours, caught on camera sucking on a Havana cigar the day the budget preparation were completed. The image will dog him for the rest of his political career.

Mr Abbott was caught on Parliament House cameras sharing a joke with colleagues behind a sombre Treasurer, while on his feet giving battlers the bad news.

This week Mr Abbott axed a proposal from his Attorney-General George Brandis to amend the Racial Discrimination Act, and which would have redefined offensive language.

He believed the current laws were too politically correct and stifled free speech. A brilliant lawyer, but known for his arrogance, Mr Brandis might have got somewhere with his proposals, but he told the Senate in the heat of battle: "People have a right to be bigots, you know."

His proposals were dead in the water from that moment. The government filled books defending the Brandis reforms but a single sentence scuttled them. One of the most spectacular own-goals of Australian politics. Perhaps hindsight has made them a little wiser and a little more humble.