From Novak Djokovic to Peta Credlin: Six degrees of separation

Something was wrong with Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final. Djokovic, a Serbian player renowned for his balance, stumbled Bambi-like around the court. Suffering some kind of mysterious "European disease", he even fell over several times, before going on to clinch victory. His opponent, Andy Murray, usually a cheery, uncomplaining sort, said he had been "distracted" by Djokovic's haphazard form. "If Novak had remained upright a bit more and hadn't tripped over his own feet so much, I might have had a chance to close out some of those tough points. But I guess we'll never know."

Tony Abbott was facing his own stability problems when he fronted the National Press Club on Monday. Governing on bravely despite a serious, long-term injury to his political judgment, the Prime Minister was forced to rely on his powers of rhetoric in a make-or-continue-slowly-to-be-undermined address. Abbott delivered a stump speech from June 2013 before he laid out his policy agenda for the year by dumping his signature policy. He then told Australia cryptically: "We are all on a journey." The embattled leader finished his speech quoting Robert Frost, Mahatma Gandhi and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

A boxing champion like the PM, Floyd Mayweather was denied a visa to Australia ahead of a big bout. The five-division world champion was barred because of his criminal history of domestic violence in the United States. It is understood Mayweather was also prohibited from entering the country by the government's new Foreign Fighters Act. Mayweather, disconsolate, posted a video of himself "somewhere in another country" - receiving a fish pedicure on a Caribbean island as Don't Worry Be Happy played in the background. This was followed by snaps of Mayweather crying into fruit cocktails and half-heartedly doing the cha-cha.

Another man not going anywhere was Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles. Giles was rolled in a midnight coup by his party, which voted in minister Willem Westra van Holthe as leader. But the next day Giles refused to resign. "I don't want to," he said in a statement addressed to his colleagues. "And you can't make me. It's a free country. Who made you boss of the world, anyway? No one even likes you." Giles eventually wrested back the leadership from Westra van Holthe later that day after beating him in a "best out of five" arm-wrestling competition.

Speaking of remarkable revivals, To Kill a Mockingbird's 88-year-old author Harper Lee is set to publish a second novel. The new book, which also features Scout and Atticus Finch, was written in the 1950s. But the manuscript had been lost for more than half a century, until someone told Lee recently to "think back to where you were when you last remember having it". The novel was found between two couch cushions, along with odd socks, a TV remote and the innocence of childhood. Lee swore she had looked there at least half a dozen times.

The Prime Minister's chief of staff Peta Credlin proved as reclusive as Lee, or even Boo Radley himself, this week. Credlin was absent from the National Press Club address, as well as the Coalition's horrendously awkward two-day strategy meeting. But she still managed to exert remote control over the Coalition's "team-building" barbecue, vetoing Health Minister Sussan Ley's choice of pork and chive sausages in favour of the chicken and sage variety. Abbott defended his chief of staff, maintaining she was in no way responsible for his burning the onions and accidentally buying only gluten-free buns.