Mr Morrison's switch to Mr Turnbull cost him allies in the party room and Peter Dutton has gone past him as the leading conservative; Mr Morrison's vocal public advocacy for greater religious protections in the same-sex marriage bill was seen in some quarters as a move to mend fences with conservative colleagues.

Aside from his maiden speech a decade ago, in which spoke openly about the importance of his deep personal faith, Mr Morrison has rarely discussed his religious views in public life.

But in a year-ending interview with Fairfax Media, he declared that "it all starts when you allow religious freedoms [to be eroded], mockery to be made of your faith or your religious festivals – it always starts innocently and it's always said it is just a joke – just like most discrimination does".

"And I'm just gonna call that out. With what I've seen happen in the last year, I've just taken the decision more recently, I'm just not going to put up with that any more, I don't think my colleagues are either."

"Where I think people are being offensive to religion in this country – whichever religion that might be, but particularly the one I and many other Christians subscribe to – well, we will just call it out and we will demand the same respect that people should provide to all religions."