You can tell a lot about a first lady by the causes she champions. In her first year in the job, Margie Abbott has backed op shops (for those with inexpensive tastes, happily unfashionable), women's tennis (sporty but not flash) and breast and ovarian cancer awareness (women-focused, with an emphasis on family communication).
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But perhaps most telling is her ambassadorship for Week Without Words, a fund-raising event for St Lucy's School in Wahroonga, a school for children with disabilities.
For this cause, Mrs Abbott took a 24-hour vow of silence. One gets the sense that for the discreet, independent Prime Minister's wife, it was no great sacrifice. But it certainly didn't stop her from working. She still spent the day communing with toddlers at the St Ives childcare centre where she is director.
"Yesterday, I was sitting in a sandpit," Mrs Abbott said.
Even though she couldn't talk, she still managed to communicate with the children.
"The eyes have it. Just the look," said the woman whose mother has described her as a "quiet person".
Her first year as "first lady" (a tag she reportedly dislikes) had been "incredible" and "fantastic", Mrs Abbott said.
"It is an interesting job – that's not quite the right word, but it is a job I am growing in."
As well as running a non-profit childcare centre in Sydney's northern suburbs, Mrs Abbott said she was studying and in a cycling group with female friends. She did suggest her friends were more interested in cycling to the next coffee shop than emulating the men-in-lycra style of cycling that her husband epitomises.
She has previously said she gave up kayaking alongside her competitive husband because it would "always turn into a race". Ever practical, she solved the problem by getting a two-person kayak.
On Friday morning, Mrs Abbott appeared on Channel Nine's Today show to support Bright Pink Lipstick Day to encourage families to talk about their health histories, such as hereditary breast cancer. She revealed her recent discovery that her paternal grandmother had died of spine cancer, which had metatasised into breast cancer.
When asked how she managed to do so much, Mrs Abbott could have been speaking for all modern women when she answered.
"You just juggle those balls. And if one hits the ground, you just kick it behind you and keep moving on," she said.
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister's office issued a detailed list of Mrs Abbott's charity work after she was criticised by Tim Mathieson, the partner of former prime minister Julia Gillard. Mr Mathieson said he was disappointed that Mrs Abbott was "not doing any charity work".
"What is she doing? Because I did 60 charity events. I went out for three full years," he said.
Mrs Abbott's charity work includes those mentioned above, plus the Deb Bailey Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease research and the KidsXpress therapy centre.
Mrs Abbott, described by those who know her as intelligent and personable, is certainly low profile but deliberately so. She rarely gives interviews.
She had to be wrenched from her modest Forestville home to set up in Kirribilli House. And she certainly doesn't "live and breathe" politics like former prime ministerial partners Janette Howard and Mr Mathieson.
Apart from anything else, one gets the sense she has far too much going on in her own life to bother with that.
