Former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull has accused his own party of ensuring an embarrassing email about him was leaked to the media.

Tensions in the Opposition heightened last night as Mr Turnbull and four others were charged with "totally unacceptable behaviour" and of showing ''great disrespect'' to the Coalition for missing a vote in Parliament.

The accusations were contained in an email sent to every Coalition MP by the Opposition whip, Warren Entsch, and his four deputies.

Ramping up the internal division today, Mr Turnbull said such an email was "a first" and he described it as a "press release".

"[To] send a letter out like that it's effectively a press release, that's the obvious intent of it. That's what happens when you send letters to half the Parliament," Mr Turnbull told reporters.

Some in the Opposition are seeing the email as payback by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for Mr Turnbull's outspoken comments last week, when he was critical of the Coalition's climate policy.

But Mr Turnbull would not be drawn on what his colleagues and supporters are telling him: "Honestly, I don't want to comment about what colleagues have said about it."

He said he was unaware of any campaign within the party to embarrass him, nor has he spoken to Mr Abbott about it.

Asked if Mr Abbott had anything to do with the email, Mr Entsch said: "Absolutely not."

"If you have a look there are five signatures on it, they are all the whips. He had no discussion and no involvement in it whatsoever and any suggestion to the contrary is absolute nonsense," Mr Entsch said.

"There's no conspiracy, there's no scheming. It was done with all of our membership, the five of us as whips. It was a decision that was made given the numbers that had missed it and I thought it was appropriate at the time."

The email names Mr Turnbull, Ian Macfarlane, Alby Schultz, John Forrest and Luke Hartsuyker for missing a division late on Tuesday night which caused the Coalition to lose a vote on a minor issue.

The email notes the five MPs all hold safe seats.

''This behaviour is totally unacceptable and shows great disrespect to their colleagues and the Coalition as a whole,'' the email said.

Mr Turnbull said the letter claimed he had missed five divisions in this Parliament - and that is incorrect.

"I've in fact missed two divisions when I left a bit early, often people do - you shouldn't do it obviously," he said.

"I'm not Robinson Crusoe on this issue to say the least. But what's different about this, I suppose, is the correspondence."

Mr Turnbull contrasted the widely-distributed email with the way he said such issues are usually handled.

"There were a couple of cases when I was leader where on a couple of important bills, motions, people were missing in action, but it was always raised privately, there was never any attempt to publicise it."

"So as far as I'm aware this is a first."

Mr Abbott refused to comment on the subject.

But the Government moved to rub salt into the Opposition's wounds in Question Time, with House leader Anthony Albanese reading the email in full to the Parliament, then tabling it.

"They are so divided opposite, they can't even make it to their own divisions," Mr Albanese said.

He said Mr Turnbull saw it as part of an attack by Mr Abbott.

"This is the Leader of the Opposition who's done for political discourse what the vuvuzela did for World Cup soccer," he said.

"Lots of noise, interesting at the beginning but annoying when it's the only noise it can make. The only noise it can make is one of opposition."