A week ago, Prime Minister Tony Abbott was telling people he would not be changing staffing arrangements in his office. But the decision was only really confirmed by the media Monday, when his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, decided it was time to summons a journalist so she could be certain her decision was widely promulgated by the press.

I know for a fact some senior ministers want Credlin to go and, from what I have heard, they have good reason. The view of some is that she does not just operate at the request of Abbott but that she takes authority off her own bat and, on more than one occasion, has attempted to personally overturn decisions made by Abbott in consultation with senior ministers.

I cannot understand why Abbott thinks he can so blatantly disregard the strong majority demand of his own backbenchers. He might think it was only 39 who wantedCredlin gone, but, if so, he is out of touch.

I was also told by a reliable source that he was saying recently that his refusal to change his chief of staff was a matter of personal loyalty. Apparently, his view is that a breach of that loyalty would be a breach of his standards of behaviour. He was not prepared to break faith on this issue. He had the same personal ethics in relation to his support of Treasurer Joe Hockey.