Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has publicly smacked down three of his ministers over the embarrassing and chaotic defeats the government suffered in the House of Representatives on Thursday night, saying they were "caught out" and humiliated after leaving Parliament early.

Insisting that the government commands a working majority despite Labor's ambush, the Prime Minister said the "only reason Labor won those procedural votes last night was because a number of the Coalition members left the building when they should not have left the building".

"What [Opposition Leader Bill Shorten] has exposed is among a number of our colleagues, a degree of complacency that obviously was unwarranted," Mr Turnbull told 3AW, naming AWOL ministers Peter Dutton, Michael Keenan and Christian Porter.

"The parliamentary tactic that Labor used is, I would say, best described as an 'oldie but a goodie' and it has been around a long time and people that have been in the Parliament a long time, like a number of those who did leave early, should have known that and they should have known not to go.