Peter Dutton has confirmed he will challenge Malcolm Turnbull for the Liberal party leadership if he gets the numbers, and is working the phones ahead of a second tilt.

With moderates digging in for Turnbull as the Dutton camp intensifies the destabilisation effort with a string of ministerial resignations, the Queenslander confirmed he would try again if he won over a majority of colleagues.

Dutton used radio interviews on Wednesday morning to lay out his agenda if he secured the party leadership, saying the GST should come off power bills – an idea that would cost billions – and there should be a royal commission into the conduct of Australia’s energy retailers, which is an idea championed by the Greens.

“I just think Australian consumers for way too long have been paying way too much for fuel and for electricity and something just isn’t right with these companies,” Dutton said on Wednesday.

“Like we have done with the banks, I think a royal commission has the ability to get to the bottom of what is fundamentally wrong with the system and what could help ease some of that pressure on families and potentially small businesses.”

There was also an inference that Turnbull is a sludgy communicator, and that is part of the government’s problem. “We need to be very clear and succinct about our message, about our policy ideas, about our vision for the country.

“At the moment I think people are struggling to understand what it is that the government stands for and we need to be very clear about the sorts of things I have spoken about.”

While the Dutton camp has fuelled the crisis with a string of ministerial resignations or attempted resignations on Tuesday night – a strategy to try and shift numbers their way – moderate forces in the government are rallying against the insurgents.

National party frontbencher Darren Chester warned Dutton he should not assume he would be able to command a majority on the floor of the House.

Flagging a possible move to the crossbench if Turnbull was toppled, Chester said Wednesday “there’s no reason why any potential challenger, whoever that may be, should assume that they can command numbers on the floor of the House of Representatives, given we have a one-seat majority”.

Crossbenchers Cathy McGowan and Rebekha Sharkie are also not guaranteeing confidence and supply in the event of a leadership change.

While senior figures appear solid for Turnbull, and power brokers feel there has been no substantial shift in Dutton’s direction after Tuesday’s leadership spill, the atmosphere in the government is febrile.

There is a possibility of a third candidate emerging in the chaos – the treasurer, Scott Morrison. There are suggestions that numbers are being tested for Morrison in the event Turnbull’s position becomes untenable.

Morrison has denied he is in play. Emotional on Wednesday morning after attending an event supporting multiple sclerosis, a condition his brother-in-law suffers from, the treasurer told reporters he was not doing the numbers for Dutton, and was not intending to present himself as a consensus candidate.

“The prime minister has my full and total support and I want to put at rest any suggestion that I’ve made an approach, that any approach has been made,” the treasurer said.

“It’s all the usual nonsense and the prime minister knows exactly where I stand.”

He said the government was working provide stability. “You all know how strongly I feel about this topic of MS and that’s the thing that fires me up to go to work every day, and the sort of nonsense we have been seeing lately, that’s what puts all that stuff at risk, so I think it’s timely that I make these remarks after the ones I have just made.

“It should be a reminder to everyone in this place about what this place is about. We need a stronger economy to help people.

“That’s what I’m focussed on, nothing else.”