Democratic Labour Party Senator John Madigan met Mr Abbott on Thursday. The Prime Minister also met Bob Day, the South Australian senator-elect from Family First, in Canberra on Wednesday. Ricky Muir. Credit:Jacky Ghossein And he will sit down with New South Wales senator-elect David Leyonhjelm in Sydney on Friday. But the Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party said Mr Muir, a 32-year-old father of five, had no time to talk until he becomes a full-time politician in July. ''He has to work for a living. He has a mortgage, he has to feed his family. He just can't take time off at the whim of the Prime Minister,'' said Keith Littler, the founder of the Motoring Enthusiast Party.

As part of the four-member Palmer United bloc in the Senate, Mr Muir is also at loggerheads with the government over Clive Palmer's request for official ''party status'' and the extra financial resources that bestows. ''There was a request to the PM for resources and that was declined, and yet the PM expects everyone to be at his beck and call,'' said Mr Littler. ''Mr Abbott has to understand there's a whole other world out there where people have to work for a living.'' On July 1, Mr Muir will swap the $500-a-week basic wage for a timber process worker for the $190,000 salary of a senator. Mr Palmer, who was seen dining with Liberal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasury boss Martin Parkinson in Canberra on Wednesday night, is still refusing to talk to Mr Abbott over the Coalition's refusal to grant party status.

''It hasn't happened and it doesn't look like happening,'' said a spokesman for Mr Palmer. Senator Madigan said he had had a broad discussion with Mr Abbott in which he outlined a list of concerns with the budget, including health, education and jobs. ''The budget, we believe, is not good for families and jobs,'' he said. ''It's one thing to say go and get a degree, but there isn't the jobs out there.'' He handed Mr Abbott three pages of questions on the Murray-Darling basin and water for irrigators and raised issues with intellectual property rights and patents. Mr Leyonhjelm said he was resolutely opposed to any new taxes, including the deficit levy and raising the petrol excise.

Loading ''We're just going to get to know each other a bit. It is a nice thing for the government to be talking to the minor parties,'' he said. Follow us on Twitter