If you want an indication of how problematic the latest same-sex marriage brawl engulfing the federal Liberals is, look no further than the Prime Minister this week preferring to take questions on WA's long-running GST battle.

Malcolm Turnbull has been in WA since Sunday, desperately needing clear air to promote his Government's wares — with recent opinion polling showing the Liberals could lose as many as five seats out west at a federal election due in 2019.

On Tuesday, he was attempting to do just that at a new inner city hotel.

He was there to announce a scheme where the Federal Government will give businesses in the hospitality sector a financial incentive to take on young interns in an attempt to get them off welfare and into employment.

No one is disputing it is a good and worthy initiative. However, his office had already given the announcement to WA's daily newspaper a day early — so all the details had already been reported.

On top of that, journalists who turned up to his press conference listened to both Mr Turnbull and others talk about the scheme on camera for almost nine minutes, including a couple of obligatory jibes thrown at Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for the usual good measure.

It should hardly have been a surprise when none of the reporters wanted to ask questions about the scheme and needlessly use up the remaining precious nine minutes they had left to quiz the PM.

Muddying the water…

Mr Turnbull appeared perplexed and exasperated that reporters instead wanted to question him about the same-sex marriage stoush engulfing the Federal Liberals — a story that had reached fever pitch overnight after his rebel MPs began canvassing options to introduce a private member's bill and abandon a plebiscite in favour of a conscience vote by the parliament.

"I think there are a lot of parents watching us today who will be really wondering why it is that not one of the journalists here has got any interest in a program that is going to give up to 120,000 young people on welfare an internship and a job," Mr Turnbull said.

"They will be really wondering what the priorities are of our friends in the media here versus the Government."

The PM was doing what politicians do — muddying the water and portraying the media as out of touch and obsessed with issues of little interest to the broader public.

"I know you are interested in [the same-sex marriage issue]," Mr Turnbull said.

"Can I tell you, I've been in WA now for a couple of days, I've met with hundreds of people … only one person has raised this issue with me.

"So [while] this is an issue of enormous interest to journalists, I think West Australians and Australians generally are focused on jobs, on employment, on economic growth and investment."

The Prime Minister seemed perplexed when he was asked in Albany about same-sex marriage. ( ABC News: Jacob Kagi )

Certainly, journalists do not always get their focus right and there are times when it is fair to accuse the so-called "fourth estate" of being off the mark in its questioning. It is the nature of the gig.

But of course — as a journalist pointed out to the PM — in this instance, reporters were asking questions about an issue Mr Turnbull's own MPs had chosen to again thrust onto the public agenda.

…and happily talking GST

It was Coalition MPs who had thrown Mr Turnbull under a bus by talking about same-sex marriage and creating the latest political storm over what continues to be a festering sore for the Federal Government.

It was the actions of his own MPs — not reporters — that created the very unhelpful distraction from the positive message the PM so desperately needed to stick to during his crucial and long-overdue trip to WA.

Mr Turnbull reiterated the Liberal Party's plebiscite position while enduring four questions on same-sex marriage and the implications for the party and his leadership, before he quickly tried to slam the closet door shut.

"Now if there are no other questions on any other issues….?" Mr Turnbull said with a chuckle.

That cheeky question was how — for once — he came to be happily answering questions on the other prickly subject of WA's unfair GST share, and the latest $2 billion hit to the state's finances caused by updated population figures.

It was a trend that continued as Mr Turnbull's campaign-mode visit to WA shifted from the city to the regions.

In Albany on Wednesday, he again appeared happier to answer questions on the GST rather than the continuing internal ructions over same-sex marriage.

Each time the latter issue was raised, Mr Turnbull moved to divert the focus by speaking about something else.

The PM's week had gotten off to a difficult start, with the Premier's Office using his arrival in WA to dump details to the daily newspaper of a $2 billion GST write-down.

It was a move clearly timed and designed to overshadow Mr Turnbull's visit, and Mr McGowan even admitted his Government had known of the latest GST hit for "the last few weeks."

Tactically, it worked just as the McGowan Government had hoped, with the issue dominating most of the press conferences and interviews Mr Turnbull did in the week.

But by mid-week, the latest GST hit to the state's finances looked more like a gift from the McGowan Government that helped the PM distract from the mischief making of his own rebel MPs.