Tony Abbott defends Government's performance in wake of SA by-election result, claims of disagreement with Julie Bishop

Updated

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has defended his Government's performance in the face of another voter backlash in a state poll and public revelations of disagreements with a key minister.

Mr Abbott said his Government was achieving goals "step by often difficult and contentious step".

"I don't say everything's been perfect, and obviously there are some things that I would wish otherwise, but I believe we've kept faith with the people and delivered on our commitments," he told AM presenter Chris Uhlmann.

"Yes, it's difficult, but step-by-step it's getting done and I think the public in the end will focus on the substance and not on the soap opera."

Mr Abbott listed success at largely stopping the flow of asylum seeker boats and sealing free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea as some of his Government's major achievements.

But over the weekend a by-election in the South Australian state seat of Fisher saw the Liberal Party suffer a 9 per cent swing against it, and could well deliver Labor a majority government.

That followed the defeat of Denis Napthine's one-term Liberal government in Victoria.

Both results are being sheeted home, in part, to the federal Coalition, and Mr Abbott conceded federal issues have played a part.

"Obviously Labor has certainly been campaigning on federal issues, there's no doubt about that," he said.

"I think in the end the public are smart enough to make distinctions.

"Regardless, Chris, our job is to be best possible Government under the circumstances in which we find ourselves."

Federal frontbencher Jamie Briggs - whose seat is in South Australia - has gone further, blaming Defence Minister David Johnston for costing the party votes through his criticism of the Government's shipbuilding company.

Last month, Senator Johnston told the Senate he would not trust ASC to "build a canoe" - comments for which he later expressed regret and called a "rhetorical flourish".

"We all make mistakes in this business and unfortunately this mistake has cost us a significant amount of support at the wrong time for the campaign in Fisher," Mr Briggs said.

PM labels Bishop reports 'gossip'

Mr Abbott also sought to justify his decision to send Trade Minister Andrew Robb with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop to this week's United Nations climate change summit in Peru.

Fairfax media last week reported that Ms Bishop went "bananas" at the Prime Minister when she found out she would be "chaperoned" by another minister.

And Ms Bishop has told Monday's Australian Financial Review that her request to go to the climate change talks was initially knocked back by the Prime Minister's office.

"I requested and it was refused so I requested again," she told the AFR in an interview before leaving for Lima on Monday.

She said her request was approved only on the condition that another minister attend.

Mr Abbott said the reports were "gossip".

"We've got a good, strong team," he said.

"In the end, these are matters between nations, so we're sending our foreign affairs team to deal with it."

The Prime Minister is also battling consistently poor polling, with the latest Fairfax/Ipsos poll showing the two-party preferred vote remains 52 to 48 in Labor's favour.

After some discussion late last month of removing "barnacles" from the Government before Christmas, Mr Abbott acknowledged there had been "community concern" about his multi-billion-dollar paid parental leave scheme.

This morning he said the PPL scheme would be re-worked into a "holistic families package", along with changes to the childcare system.

But Mr Abbott has rejected suggestions that he has broken promises and failed to deliver the "no surprises" government he offered.

He said the $7 GP co-payment was "very extensively talked about in the lead-up to the budget" and "certainly wasn't ruled out before the election".

The budget plan to deregulate university fees and cut government spending by 20 per cent on courses was also flagged by the university sector.

"These are hardly shocking subjects, even though inevitably, particularly with the co-payment, people would prefer it wasn't there," he said.

Topics: abbott-tony, federal-government, australia

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