Tony Abbott tells Coalition colleagues to 'take a long hard look at themselves' over criticisms of chief of staff Peta Credlin

Updated

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has slapped down his Coalition colleagues for criticising the performance of his chief of staff and suggested there was an element of sexism behind the attacks.

Some ministers and MPs accuse Peta Credlin of micro-managing and privately blame her for the Government's problems.

This week, Ms Credlin was forced to deny claims her working relationship with the Foreign Minister had broken down, amid reports Julie Bishop is refusing to take directives from Mr Abbott's office.

Speaking to the ABC this morning, Mr Abbott said he doubted Ms Credlin would cop as much criticism if she were a man.

"The point I want to make first of all is this is the same office which ran a very effective opposition, it's the same office which has got an enormous amount done this year, sometimes under very difficult circumstances," he said.

"The other point I make, do you really think that my chief of staff would be under this kind of criticism if her name was P-E-T-E-R as opposed to P-E-T-A?"

When asked whether that was a direct message to his colleagues, Mr Abbott responded: "I think people need to take a long, hard look at themselves with some of these criticisms."

Credlin 'doing a bloody good job'

Senior Cabinet minister Kevin Andrews leapt to Ms Credlin's defence, saying she was doing a fantastic job.

"She's doing a bloody good job in difficult circumstances - it's one of the most difficult jobs in the country," he said.

"It's been a pleasure working with Peta Credlin.

"I will continue to do so and that's what all my colleagues will do."

Mr Andrews also played down the reported rift between Ms Credlin and Ms Bishop, saying there was some "mischief making" going on.

"Let me be blunt about this: we're not changing the leader, we're not changing the treasurer, we're not changing the chief of staff," he said.

"[Ms Credlin] has been integral to the election of this government.

"She's been integral to this government since the election and she will continue to be so in the future."

Voters should take 'glass half full' approach, PM says

The Government is ending the year behind in the opinion polls and in recent weeks has been forced to back down on, or make major amendments to, key policies including the proposed GP co-payment and Mr Abbott's signature policy, the paid parental leave scheme.

Who is Peta Credlin? Credlin has worked for Tony Abbott since 2009, when he was opposition leader

Prior to 2009 she was chief of staff to both Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull

In June, Clive Palmer accused her of masterminding the Government's paid parental leave scheme for her own benefit; he later said he regretted the comments

In 2013, she was caught drink-driving - blowing 0.075 when breathalysed on her way home from Mr Abbott's budget reply speech - but escaped punishment

In 2013, long-serving senator Ian Macdonald criticised her and the PM's office for its "obsessive centralised control phobia"

She was an adviser to former Howard government minister Richard Alston

She spoke publicly in 2013 about her unsuccessful attempts to conceive through IVF

"The government's job is to be better today than yesterday, to be better tomorrow than today, to be better next week than this week," Mr Abbott said.

"This is the constant job of government and you've seen already some indications that the Government is going to change."

He urged voters to take a "glass half full" approach and reflect on the Government's achievements in its first year in office.

"You look at the year that's been. Carbon tax repeal delivered, mining tax repeal delivered, boats stopped, the free trade agreements - one of which comes into force today, the Korean free trade agreement we never thought we'd get a couple of years ago. [All] done.

"A lot of good's happening and if we look at the economy, we're now growing at an average [growth] rate of 2.7 per cent. It was only 1.9 per cent last year."

Topics: government-and-politics, abbott-tony, federal-government, liberals, australia

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