The left faction-backed Mr Johns was the subject of an extraordinary threat by broadcaster Alan Jones earlier this month. Former Macarthur MP Russell Matheson (right) is pictured with Tony Abbott. Credit:Simon Bennett Jones said he would use his program to tell a "hell of a story" about Mr Johns if he decided to run against Mr Kelly, who is aligned with the right. Mr Turnbull had earlier written to acting NSW Liberal party director Simon McInnes in a bid to protect Mr Kelly. It comes just days after Mr Turnbull moved to ensure Liberal rising star Angus Taylor would not face a pre-selection fight with neighbouring MP Russell Matheson, hours before he promoted the Hume MP to his frontbench last Saturday.

In a phone call between Mr Turnbull and Mr Matheson on Saturday, the Prime Minister said his preference was for the Macarthur MP to stay put and fight to hold on to his marginal seat in the 2016 election. Angus Taylor arrives at the swearing-in ceremony for members of the new Turnbull ministry at Government House in on Thursday February 18. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen He promised resources and support for Mr Matheson, who has lost 48,000 of the 92,000 voters in his outer suburban Sydney seat of Macarthur to Mr Taylor's regional seat of Hume, which runs from Goulburn to Sydney's southern outskirts. As a result of the electoral commission boundary redistribution, Mr Matheson's margin has been slashed from 11.8 per cent to 2.8 per cent under major changes in a boundary re-distribution by the electoral commission and the redrawn boundaries had prompted the popular local MP, a former police officer who has assiduously worked Liberal branches, to consider a shift to Hume and a challenge to Mr Taylor. Mr Matheson subsequently announced, earlier this week, he would nominate again for Macarthur and on Thursday he revealed to Fairfax Media details of the call with the Prime Minister.

"He didn't push me to do anything, he said it was my decision, but he said I was the right man for Macarthur in his view, and I said that's where I'm going to run," he said. "He [Mr Turnbull] said I would get the resources to win Macarthur and I'm on the streets already, campaigning." "The call was on Saturday, just before the reshuffle was announced." Mr Matheson said he had moved to the region in the 1970s and that his "heart and soul" were in Macarthur. "My political base has shifted because of the redistribution but this is my decision, I wasn't pushed, shoved or pulled," he said.

"Obviously when a redistribution happens like this, it rattles you, it's not easy walking away from my political base. But there is no way I could abandon the people who gave me an opportunity at the local level." Mr Matheson's house is still in the "new" seat of Macarthur, but his electorate office is now no longer in his electorate. Liberal party federal director Tony Nutt had also called him, Mr Matheson said, to offer him support. The redistribution in NSW has triggered a series of challenges and possible challenges to incumbent MPs. And Liberal veteran Bronwyn Bishop is set to face a challenge from Tony Abbott's campaign manager and president of the Warringah federal electorate conference, Walter Villatora.