Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott really blew up deluxe at News Corp's Herald Sun last week after the Melbourne tabloid published an analysis of his taxpayer-funded travels in 2016, sourced from data released twice-yearly by the Commonwealth Department of Finance.

Abbott's displeasure was aired prominently in the following day's edition, in his letter to the editor accusing his Coalition colleagues of an "insider hatchet job", and a news story on it.