Tony Abbott tells colleagues to call him directly

THE PM has told colleagues who are scared of his powerful chief of staff, Peta Credlin, that they should phone him directly.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott talks on his mobile phone as he and other riders have their lunch stop at Homebush Bay before continuing the last leg from Homebush Bay to Sydney University of the 2010 Pollie Pedal bicycle trip from Melbourne to Sydney.

TONY Abbott today told colleagues frightened of his powerful chief of staff Peta Credlin to avoid her by telephoning him directly.

The Prime Minister offered the advice while making clear he was not going to sack his top adviser, who is being blamed for some of the complaints threatening his leadership.

But he acknowledged, in response to a question about Ms Credlin, that his chief of staff had been a tough office gatekeeper to get past.

“I say to people that my door is open, I am available to people,” Mr Abbott told reporters, referring to his ministerial and back bench colleagues.

“If they are anxious about talking to Person X or about talking to Person Y, talk to me.”

Mr Abbott said he always checked his messages.

He was speaking after getting a big message from two-thirds of his back bench who today voted in favour of a leadership spill. He defeated the spill motion with the numbers from the ministry, but even so some 40 per cent of Liberal MPs wanted a leadership ballot.

Fans of Peta Credlin recognise she is a tough operator but argue that whatever mistakes the Government has made, there have been even bigger ones prevented by the chief of staff.

But her intrusive micromanagement of matters such as appointments to the staffs of ministers and gruff rejection of much advice from other MPs has at times isolated Mr Abbott from his colleagues.

‘So, Peta, what should I do?’

Mr Abbott credits Ms Credlin and her husband Brian Loughnane (the Federal Director of the Liberal party) as the partnership which has delivered significant achievements for the Liberals, and rejected suggestions there was a conflict of interest between them hurting the party.

“It certainly didn’t stop us having a very good result in the 2010 election; it didn’t stop us from running a very strong Opposition in the last term of the Parliament. It didn’t stop us getting a very good result in the 2013 election,” he said.

“And frankly it didn’t stop us doing a lot of good things last year, whether it be stopping the boats, repealing the carbon tax, getting three free trade agreements negotiated.”

However, as part of his bid to repair relations with his back bench the Prime Minister promised Ms Credlin, and others, would improve their output.

Do I say everyone of us is perfect? Absolutely not. I don’t say that,” the Prime Minister told reporters.

“Do I say we can’t lift our game? Of course we can all do that.”

It’s interesting to note that Ms Credlin was not at Abbott’s National Press Club speech last Monday and, unusually, she is not in the advisers’ box for Question Time today.

She has been pushed into the background, for a while at least.