The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, says he is one of 149 lower house parliamentarians with the ambition to become prime minister but his form has been “rock solid” loyalty to the party leader of the day.

Dutton used an appearance on the ABC on Sunday to defend Tony Abbott’s right to speak out where the criticisms were constructive and he said the Liberal party needed to “show the respect that is due to Tony Abbott as a former leader and prime minister”.

Asked about his own ambition, considering that as the most powerful conservative in the government Dutton is now spoken of as a leadership contender, the minister said it was “part of my plan to be a good part and a constructive part and a positive part, I hope, of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership, which I hope goes for a long time”.

Arguing that all parliamentarians were ambitious, Dutton said: “I’m just one of a humble 149.”

He said he was “rock solid loyal to Tony Abbott, I’m rock solid loyal to Malcolm Turnbull and I was to John Howard and Brendan Nelson and that’s my approach into the future”.

Dutton’s comments follow another week where Abbott has taken opportunities to speak out and criticise the prime minister, interventions which were followed by the leak of internal party polling showing Abbott was in trouble during the last federal election in his seat of Warringah.

The former prime minister responded furiously to the leak last week.

After indicating the poll had been seen by only three people, himself, Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal party’s former federal director, Tony Nutt, Abbott fired off a second broadside last Thursday, declaring the government had undermined its own “good story” on changing citizenship laws because “some genius” decided to leak the Warringah survey.

Dutton has taken a more nuanced line on Abbott’s damaging public critiques than fellow leading party conservative, the finance minister Mathias Cormann, who has twice intervened publicly to ask Abbott to pull his head in.

Cormann said bluntly last week Abbot’s commentary was putting the Labor leader, Bill Shorten, within striking distance of the Lodge.

The immigration minister has made it a point of arguing that Abbott needs to be treated with respect, and has a right to speak as he sees fit, provided the commentary is intended constructively.

“I don’t support criticisms where they’re not constructive and I want us, as a party, to show the respect that is due to Tony Abbott as a former leader and prime minister,” he said.

But asked on Sunday whether Turnbull should bring Abbott back into a ministerial role – which is an option some government MPs think should not be dismissed out of hand – Dutton said the prime minister had made it clear that he wanted younger people and women.

“The prime minister said that he wants to put younger people in the ministry and he wants to make sure that we’ve got female representation and we’ve got talent that is emerging for us in great number from the backbench and we have an incredibly talented outer ministry and backbench,” Dutton said.

“And Malcolm Turnbull has made the point before that he wants to try to put people in to provide them with that training and skill so that they can be great cabinet ministers into the future.”