Abbott takes Shorten to Afghanistan Not a victory in Afghanistan, but an advance: As Apache attack helicopters circled nearby, Mr Abbott did not declare victory or defeat, but he declared that Afghanistan was a better country for Australia's efforts. Note this detail of Abbott's latest visit to Afghanistan: The Abbott entourage arrived at the mountainous outpost in Tarin Kowt, Oruzgan Province, under an unprecedented security shield to call time on Australia's longest ever war... [Abbott's] sentiments were supported by Bill Shorten who joined Mr Abbott on his fourth visit and the first ever bipartisan pilgrimage to the troops. Contrast this grace this to the rank politicking of Julia Gillard in 2010: TONY Abbott has accused Julia Gillard of "low bastardry" in disclosing that he had declined her offer to travel to Afghanistan together to visit Australian troops. At the end of a full-day visit to the forces at the coalition base in Tarin Kowt on Saturday, Mr Abbott said he personally told the Prime Minister weeks earlier that he planned to visit separately. "So Gillard's office were briefing [reporters] last Monday that I'd somehow dudded the troops by not visiting," Mr Abbott said at the weekend. "I regard it as an act of low bastardry given what Gillard knew based on the conversation I'd had with her personally," he said. Abbott back then had privately informed Gillard he was going to Afghanistan. Gillard then publicly said she was going and said Abbott had turned down her invitation to come, too. She did not reveal he'd already organised his own trip. I think the standard of politics has been vastly improved by an election.