Tony Abbott and his chief of staff Peta Credlin are enforcing a culture of “obsessive centralised control phobia” and are out of touch with voters, according to Liberal National Party senator Ian Macdonald, who has delivered a scathing attack on the Prime Minister’s office.

Senator Macdonald is furious that he has not been consulted about the government’s terms of reference for its Northern Australia policies, saying he “discovered” them by accident and was treated dismissively by the Prime Minister’s office.

“What you see in the terms of reference submitted by the government may be the Prime Minister’s office’s version of what it was all about,” Senator Macdonald said.