Mr Abbott has been calling selected colleagues since the beginning of 2015 after an untidy end to last year, and allocated some of Tuesday morning to phoning colleagues following a strongly negative reaction to his unilateral decision to award a knighthood to the Queen's husband. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been busy on the phone to colleagues following the negative reaction to his knighthood decision. Credit:Rohan Thomson The knighthood - a so-called "captain's pick" which did not go before the party-room or cabinet - sent shockwaves through the government when unveiled on Australia Day, touching off widespread chatter about the Prime Minister's political judgment. Fairfax Media reported that some MPs believed the mood in the governing parties was now so depressed as to warrant a special meeting of MPs to discuss emergency solutions. However, that is unlikely and a scheduled joint Coalition party-room meeting on February 10 will provide the forum for what could become an embarrassing free-for-all for disgruntled MPs. Some MPs say they now intend to adopt a more critical public approach to government policy, raising the prospect of increased difficulties for the government in communicating complex policy options.

Senior ministers mostly kept a low profile on Tuesday while others either pointedly refused to endorse the knighthood for Prince Philip, or opposed it. Would Hockey have granted a knighthood to Prince Philip? Credit:Christopher Pearce Treasurer Joe Hockey baulked when asked by 2GB host Ben Fordham if he would have granted the knighthood to the Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, had he been prime minister. "I'm not prime minister Ben," he said. Others were less economical.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann tied himself in verbal knots attempting to express unflinching support for Mr Abbott's leadership while also declining to back the choice of the British monarch's husband for Australia's top gong. Having called a press conference to provide government commentary on a junior Labor frontbencher's opinion-page views regarding the mining and carbon taxes, Senator Cormann repeatedly refused to endorse Mr Abbott's knighthood insisting his role was not that of a commentator. "This is a decision that was made by the Prime Minister, it wasn't my decision," he said. Asked if he should have been consulted, regarding the appointment, he responded: "No, this is not the way this process works. This process is based on a decision and recommendation by the Prime Minister through the appropriate forum and this is not a decision by the cabinet". Another senior cabinet figure, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, was more forthcoming, revealing he did not support the allocation of Australian honours to non-Australians.

"I'm always of the strong belief that all awards should be for Australians," Senator Joyce said becoming the first cabinet figure to publicly differ with the Prime Minister. Queensland LNP backbencher Andrew Laming also weighed in telling Sky News "many people around the country are shocked by the call" admitting it had caused bemusement at Australia Day functions. As a slew of conservative commentators normally in tune with the government have rounded on Mr Abbott over the knighthood decision with many concluding it revealed a prime minister who is out of touch and has a blindspot concerning the monarchy. That the controversy is being viewed through the leadership lens was evidenced by the Veterans Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson, who made the link voluntarily when asked by a reporter if he supported the decision to make Prince Philip a knight. "This is probably the most predictable question that I've been asked today and I'll answer the next one for you," he said.

"The Prime Minister has the full confidence of the party and he'll remain the prime minister and on a day like this I don't intend to add anything further to that."