Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s international tour has continued to give him a dominant share of media coverage over the past seven days. He’s been chumming up with fellow conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and both agree furiously that man-made climate change may possibly be occurring, but you’d be a loon to actually do anything about it, eh?

There was plenty of movement behind the PM, with Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Palmer United Party Leader Clive Palmer swapping spots. Both stayed in the top three as the fallout from their dinner spiralled into an all-out verbal brawl between Turnbull and right-wing commentariat kingpins Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones, while Palmer finally was forced to back down following his tasteless comments about PM’s chief of staff Peta Credlin.

And then there was Victoria. The bizarre negotiations around what to do with Independent MP Geoff Shaw may finally come to a head today as the government seeks his suspension until September, with it now looking possible that the government will limp on to the scheduled November 29 election date, relying on the Speaker’s vote to continue to have the numbers. The only thing really certain about Victorian politics at the moment is the lack of certainty.

Crikey Political Index: June 5-11

Clive Palmer continues to get his fair share of love on talkback, but plenty of the Coalition faithful were also out roasting the PUP Leader as “the enemy”.

Talkback top five

The PM seems to have settled around a “natural” level of about 75,000 mentions a week on social media, while Clive Palmer doubled his mentions, scoring many a brickbat for his PPL comments.

Social media top five

A brilliant comedian, and undoubtedly a major cultural touchstone for his generation — Rik Mayall got us. Vale Flashheart, vale Alan B’Stard, vale Rick.

Comparison of media mentions