Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's support has dropped below Tony Abbott's support before he was dumped. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Abbott said no. No one has ever accused the former prime minister of having a delicate style. But even by his usual punchy standards, Abbott has become particularly uncompromising, pugilistic and trouble-making, say his colleagues. The showdown over party reform is just one flashpoint in an increasingly public war between the Prime Minister and the man he deposed, one which is strongly reminiscent of similar power struggles from the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott hits back in Parliament. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Until recently, Abbott has limited his public interventions to discrete issues like party reform (which many view as merely a proxy war against Turnbull), or what he thinks of Donald Trump (many of the Republican nominees positions are "reasonable enough", Abbott says). But this week the Member for Warringah broke cover to insert himself into a public fight over the issue of the importation of an obscure shotgun, the Adler, which some Nationals would like to see legalised with strict conditions. Tony Abbott listens as Malcolm Turnbull launches the 2016 election campaign. Credit:Jason Edwards An amendment to the original ban on the Adler shotgun, which included a sunset clause negotiated with pro-gun crossbencher David Leyonhjelm, was put through Abbott's "kitchen cabinet", rather than the whole cabinet, in July last year.

That means Abbott's office should have known about it and, considering how centrally run the government was under Abbott's chief of staff Peta Credlin, it would be surprising if it did not. Nonetheless, Abbott was unrelenting in his attack on Turnbull this week. It was was a fight which only served to inflame Liberal-Nationals tensions, which embarrassed the Prime Minister publicly, when he was forced to come out and defend his ministers, in what amounted to a rebuke of Abbott. Abbott returned fire by making a public statement in parliament claiming he had been misrepresented "most grievously" by his own leader. Even Rudd and Gillard resisted airing their tensions in the House of Representatives.

On Friday, Turnbull was at pains to point out that, under him, the Adler issue had gone to cabinet. "The decision to impose the sunset clause was not a cabinet decision last year ... it wasn't a decision of the Abbott cabinet," he said. "I ensured that the extension of the ban that was made by my government was a decision of the cabinet." But the whole fight constituted an own goal for the government, leading some to question whether Abbott should stay in parliament at all. Abbott's Coalition colleagues are caught midway between dismay and bemusement at their former leader's behaviour, particularly after a recent party-room meeting where he raised the party reform issue. People who were present say the weekly meeting is always polite and respectful, but Abbott broke with that tradition and was "berating" people who disagreed with him.

Despite his pledge, on leaving office, that there would be "no wrecking, no undermining and no sniping", Abbott appears to be on a campaign of some sort. "It's like Abbott unleashed again, like a few years ago, when he was free to follow his own desires," one government minister says. "In the last few weeks, he's attacked Ronald Reagan, endorsed Trump, launched into the moderates in the NSW Libs and now he's thrown [ministers] Keenan and Dutton under a bus. "Someone should be standing there saying, 'Is that really that smart, Tony?' but he doesn't seem to have those people around him anymore." The comparisons with Kevin Rudd, who undermined the prime ministership of Julia Gillard from the backbench, before launching a successful political assault on her, are too tempting.

But any comeback would involve wooing his party room, and instead Abbott seems determined to blow it up. For months, the former PM has sought to pressure Turnbull, and other members of the NSW moderate-conservative alliance which put Turnbull into power, over the issue of party reform. "This is a power struggle between Tony and Malcolm, that's exactly what this is about," says one senior NSW Liberal of the party reform issue, set to be debated at this weekend's state council meeting. According to senior NSW Liberals, Abbott's reform plan for pre-selections done by plebiscite, was likely to go down in a "screaming heap". Those counting the numbers said Abbott could have relied on the votes of about 38 per cent of the council – well short of the 60 per cent plus one vote needed to amend the NSW Liberal constitution.

Liberals who have worked on the Turnbull-Baird compromise say it's a comprehensive proposal that seeks to give the membership a direct hand in formulating party policy, while addressing open sores like female representation. They say Abbott's plan, called "the Warringah proposal", is solely focused on pre-selections. "Abbott and [hard-right party operative and numbers man] Walter Villatora would back this if they were serious about party reform," says one NSW Liberal MP. "But reform is the secondary motive. The first motive is a power grab by Abbott and the Trump element of the party." Another NSW Liberal MP said the Turnbull-Baird counter-proposal was about achieving a reform outcome while sparing Abbott the "humiliation" of having his proposal defeated. "What will happen if this thing goes down in a flaming heap? Alan Jones, other columnists and Abbott are going to go ape shit and say it's another factional stitch-up."

Another Liberal who said he backed the introduction of rank-and-file plebiscites said the proposal put forward by Villatora was riddled with holes that could result in a return of ethnic branch stacking in the NSW party. He said the plebiscite model put up "removed all safety valves" from the current pre-selection system, which combines rank-and-file votes with a central state executive component. "This would allow someone to sign up 1500 new members on the Monday and see them vote in a pre-selection on the Tuesday." Abbott's reform push might have been tolerable, his colleagues say, if he'd kept it in NSW. But he is using it in Canberra to embarrass the Prime Minister. Even leader of the house Christopher Pyne was forced to admit tensions exist between the two men, saying "they have a difference of opinion about who the Prime Minister should be".

"Everyone is concerned about the appearance of Rudd versus Gillard playing out again," says one of the NSW Liberal MPs. A Cabinet minister observes that Abbott "inflicted more damage on himself than anyone else" this week, but the government was still the "net loser". "Where does it go from here? That depends very much on Tony's attitude," the minister says. "If he's going to do everything publicly there will be a continuing distraction ... Maybe the events of this week will cause him to reflect on the wisdom of doing that." Does Abbott believe he might return to the prime ministership? His language leaves the possibility open. Last week he told Fairfax Media he stood "ready to serve", but was "perfectly content serving as the member for Warringah".

"I think he wants a change, whether that's a change back to him or just to see Malcolm gone," says the Cabinet minister. The party room seems almost completely united in its conviction that voters are disgusted by the "revolving-door leadership" that has come to define Australian politics. Loading Some believe that if Abbott cannot accept his new status as a backbencher, he should consider his position. "Now that question returns: what does he want? Is he going to stay or go? Is he going to become Kevin Rudd?" asks one minister. "I don't know if people are going to come down on the side of him staying if this is the way it's going to be. Both the public and the party room."