Tony Abbott could be forgiven for hoping that sometimes, no one listens to what he says.

After his much anticipated meeting with Vladimir Putin this week that conspicuously did not involve a shirt-fronting, it would surely be preferable that less people had registered his tough talk, rather than more.

And that the incident would only be a cause for tittering in his home country - particularly with global congregating for the G20.

But no, as it turns out, the rest of the world was listening too.

During the parliamentary speeches on Friday morning to mark Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to Australia, Bill Shorten observed that sledging between Brits and Aussies reflects "the depth of our friendship".

Cameron clearly took this to heart, because among his sombre reflections on Gallipoli, Gough, terrorism and the Australian economy, he popped in a wee gag.

Abbott would not have seen it coming. In fact, it was ever so sneakily, disguised with a compliment.

"You want to shape the world you live in, not be shaped by it," Cameron declared in his friendly Oxford tones.

"Our nations share a similar outlook on life. We never think twice before jumping in to help."

By way of example, Cameron then recalled that last month, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had "strode across the room towards me at a summit in Italy".

"I wondered for a moment whether I was heading for what I'm told we now need to call a 'shirt-fronting'."

As the chamber collapsed into a polite chortle, Cameron explained that no, Bishop was simply coming to offer to help Britain treat Ebola in Sierra Leone.

"But, no, Julie, who is a great friend of Britain, said that Australia would add 100 beds to our Ebola treatment facility in Sierra Leone. Typical Australia, always there with action not words," Cameron continued with a straight face.

Just not when it comes to shirt-fronting.

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