Mr Abbott downed a schooner at Sydney’s Royal Oak Hotel, where he ran into a gathering of a University of Technology Sydney Aussie Rules team.

They invited him over for a drink, and the reportedly “proud as punch” PM polished off the glass to chants of “skol” and victorious cheers of “Tony!”.

Had Mr Abbott just had a beer with the lads, this wouldn’t be an issue — he’s human after all. But seeing the nation’s leader buying into the very binge-drinking culture he and other politicians so often rally against definitely raises an eyebrow.

“But it was only one drink,” you might counter, “It’s just a bit of fun.” It may well be, but we hold politicians to higher standards than others, as well we should — we look to them to set and lead by example.

Just last year, this federal government rose the beer tax to discourage heavy drinking. Does being “one of the boys” help that, or set a double standard?

The whole incident has inevitably been compared with former Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s world record skol of a yard glass. Mr Hawke has said that single event most helped his popularity.

Our binge-drinking culture isn’t going to change if our sitting MPs buy into that.