Prime minister says suggestions he might step down if the government’s problems continue are ‘absolute nonsense’ in bruising interview with Melbourne radio station

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Tony Abbott has acknowledged growing internal criticism of his performance, conceding he could be a better salesman but urging the team to stick with him and saying the alternative to his government was “national decline”.

In a bruising radio interview, the prime minister dismissed suggestions he might step down if the problems continued as “absolute nonsense” and emphasised the importance of not changing leaders.

“You know, if there is one lesson to be learnt from the fate of the former government in Canberra, maybe even from the fate of the former government in Victoria, is you do not change leaders,” Abbott told 3AW on Thursday.

“You rally behind someone and you stick to the plan and we’ve got a good plan.”

Abbott conceded he could do a better job selling the government’s message.

“Sure, I could be a bigger and more effective skite sometimes; sure, sometimes we need to break out of, if you like, the left mindset in talking about issues,” he said.

“But it’s been a very good government last year and it’s going to be an even better one this year.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tony Abbott on 3AW. Source: 3AW and the Neil Mitchell show.

Abbott has previously conceded the end of 2014 was “ragged” and he began a process of removing “barnacles” that had caused problems for the Coalition, which continued to lag behind Labor in opinion polls.

But rather than a clean start to 2015, the government performed a U-turn over a plan to cut the Medicare rebate for short visits to the GP and faced media reports of tensions between him and senior ministers. Backbench MPs have expressed concerns about the government’s performance and communication and the role of the prime minister’s office.

Abbott was confronted by a 3AW talkback caller named Andrew who said he was “a Liberal voter through and through” but worried the prime minister was “on the nose with Liberal voters” and was on track to “put Bill Shorten in the Lodge with a massive majority”.

“You’re the world’s worst salesman, prime minister,” the caller said, citing backflips on Medicare and university policies.

Abbott asked the caller to “look at the facts” and said jobs growth in Victoria was strong last year.

“By all means say that we could do better at salesmanship, and look, I’ve never been a skite – never intend to be a skite; I would rather underpromise and overdeliver … Andrew, I would welcome you going out and using your salesmanship skills, which I’m sure are considerable, to help sell the government’s message.”

Abbott urged internal and external critics to “look at the record, and again, look at the alternative”.

He cited the scrapping of the carbon and mining taxes, the stopping of asylum-seeker boats and the signing of three free-trade agreements as evidence of the government’s successes in 2014.

Asked why he was on the nose, Abbott said: “People are entitled to make their judgments but as I said my response to everyone who says things aren’t going so well is to say look at the record.”

The prime minister said the government’s main failing was that it had experienced “some difficulties with the Senate”.

“Frankly the alternative to this government is national decline,” Abbott said.

“The last thing we want to be is a second-rate nation living off its luck. This is very serious. Our country is a great country. We’ve got a fundamentally strong economy, but we face many challenges and the political party which is serious about economic reform, the only political party which is serious about budget responsibility is the one I lead.”

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said the government was “in a state of chaos and division” and described Abbott’s radio interview as a “train crash”.

“When he’s got his own Liberal voting base ringing up and attacking him, there’s a real problem,” Shorten said.

“The Liberal Abbott government cannot government themselves, so how can we expect them to govern the nation?”

The Coalition’s Senate leader, Eric Abetz, acknowledged the government needed “to re-engage with the Australian people”, but he defended Abbott against criticism from “maybe one or two” Coalition members who were backgrounding journalists.

“They’re always so very brave when they don’t have to give their name,” Abetz said.

“This sort of backgrounding, if it is occurring – it’s just people who aren’t willing to put their names to it, or in fact stories that are sort of half concocted … and it’s amazing how the lowliest backbencher all of a sudden becomes a ‘senior Liberal’ in stories such as this.”

Abetz said he was receiving feedback from Coalition colleagues that they were “committed to the course the government has set”.

“Is it a difficult course? Yes, it is,” Abetz said.

“In a democracy no government deliberately sets about making these sort of decisions that they know that the population instinctively doesn’t like, but I also think instinctively they understand that they are the correct decisions for the future.”

In a sign of concerns about the federal government’s performance, Abbott has not joined the Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, on the state election campaign trail. Abbott said Newman wanted “to run his own race”.

Abbott has vowed to prioritise the government’s plan to deregulate university fees when parliament resumes next month.

The Senate blocked the bill last month because of concerns about funding cuts and increases to university fees. Despite the offer of further concessions to crossbench senators, the Senate appears likely to block the bill.