Abbott gets back in ring with 7.30's Sales Tony Abbott is either feeling lucky or he's been reading up. Maybe he's been taking peptides. Whatever it is, he's tempting fate. The Opposition Leader has decided to front the frightening Leigh Sales on ABC TV's 7.30 tonight. Tony Abbott is preparing to appear on ABC TV's 7.30 with Leigh Sales, more than six months after their last encounter. Mr Abbott last climbed into the 7.30 boxing ring with Sales on August 22 last year. It turned into such a donnybrook, with Mr Abbott reeling away, his ears ringing, that the Australian Communications and Media Authority investigated following complaints that Sales had displayed bias and was generally mean and nasty by asking questions. The authority dismissed the allegations. Mr Abbott didn't get off so lightly - many viewers, commentators and a gleeful Gillard government agreed that he had managed to deliver a near-knockout blow to himself. His problem was that he bounced off the ropes with a declaration that BHP had suspended its giant Olympic Dam mining project because of the carbon tax. Sales was waiting for him. She delivered the first blow of the bout by declaring he was loose with the truth and forced him to admit he had not actually read BHP's own statement on the matter, which did not mention the carbon tax. Things went downhill for Mr Abbott from there. When Sales tackled him about asylum seekers and whether he accepted it was legal to seek asylum, Abbott tried to obfuscate, saying if people wanted a migration outcome, they should go through the migration channels. Sales wailed into him for avoiding answering her question and again accused him of being loose with the truth. By the time she told Abbott they were out of time, it wasn't hard to imagine icicles were forming on the camera lens. "Thank you," said Abbott, though it didn't sound entirely sincere. Perhaps he was thanking the good lord for freeing him from Sales' clutches. Whatever happens tonight, at least Mr Abbott has something a little less demanding ahead of him. He's off on his annual long-distance bicycle journey, Pollie Pedal, this weekend. It's a mere eight days of physical grind from Adelaide to Geelong.