Tasmanian police charged a man with one count of common assault in an alleged altercation with former prime minister Tony Abbott on the Hobart waterfront.

The 39-year old suspect man was granted conditional bail to appear in the Hobart magistrates court on 23 October. 

The confrontation apparently happened on Thursday afternoon.  Mr. Abbott was in town for Liberal Party functions.  He and others claim a man wearing a "yes" badge for the same-sex marriage postal vote reached out to shake his hand, but instead head-butted the former PM.  Abbott says he was largely uninjured in the row, save for a slightly swollen lip.

"I was with a member of my staff, (who) briefly grappled with this guy and then he ran off swearing his head off, basically," Tony said on 3AW radio, where he went on to condemn what he called the "brave new world of same-sex marriage".  Of course, gay marriage isn't new at all, having been legalized without any problems in all of or parts of Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uruguay.  Those countries haven't descended into goat-marrying madness, as some people would have you believe.

Abbott also claimed the "yes" side was responsible for the increasing ugliness of Australia's same sex marriage debate.  But apparently not ugly enough for Abbott to call police about his alleged assailant, because Tasmanian Police say they began investigating the incident after hearing Tony Abbott talking about it on political talk radio.

The ugliness in the debate has shown itself in several attacks on "yes" supporters, including the son of another former prime minister Kevin Rudd. 

Both sides of the debate condemned the attack on Abbott, and PM Malcolm Turnbull urged calm.