Act now on policies to stave off second spill, Turnbull told

Malcolm Turnbull is under pressure to move quickly on a range of policy resets to blunt the appeal of another Dutton challenge.

Malcolm Turnbull at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday. Picture: Kym Smith.

Malcolm Turnbull is under pressure from supporters to move quickly on a range of policy resets to blunt the appeal of another Peter Dutton challenge.

Coalition MPs are still waiting for more information on the Prime Minister’s energy policy backflip on Monday, while announcements on immigration and school funding reform are seen as urgent priorities.

Some also want to see the government bring forward tax cuts for small and medium businesses if the Senate rejects the government’s latest proposal to deny a tax break to the big banks.

Mr Turnbull was defiant when he faced the media yesterday, calling for unity rather than acknowledging the concerns of critics.

But one of his closest supporters said Mr Turnbull was working on policy changes that would focus on “political saleability”.

“When you face any challenge in life, especially a spill, you need to look at how you got to where you are, and what you need to do to ­ensure you don’t get there again. That’s the process he is going through now,” the Liberal frontbencher said. “He is also talking to respon­sible ministers about potential remedies that will allow our backbenchers to take up the fight to Labor.”

Education Minister Simon Birmingham has been urgently seeking a peace deal with the Catholic education sector to stave off a ­potentially devastating campaign on school funding at the next federal election. Colleagues said a resolution, ­offering the sector more money, was close to being finalised.

Backbenchers are also seeking an urgent announcement on population policy, amid voter anger over the failure of city infrastructure to cope with surging ­migration. Mr Dutton, before he resigned as home affairs minister, was working on a policy to require more migrants to settle outside the major cities. Sources close to the Prime Minister said this was now a priority.

Mr Turnbull is also under pressure from conservatives to ­announce new protections for religious freedom, which were the subject of a report to the Prime Minister in May.

One strident critic of Mr Turnbull said the small business portfolio needed to be brought into cabinet, while superannuants needed to be assured there would be “no more fiddling with their super”.

Mr Dutton, after resigning from the frontbench yesterday, said the government needed to make sure it addressed the ­migration issue “so infrastructure can catch up in our capital cities”. “It’s clear that the Australian public, particularly in capital cities in Victoria, in NSW, in Queensland, have a view that the ­migration number is too high,” he said.

He said the government needed to be able to tell voters their ­energy prices were coming down, and be able “provide you with that guarantee”.

“Record amounts” also needed to be spent on health, education and aged care, he said.

One of Mr Dutton’s key supporters said the conservatives weren’t demanding Australia abandon its Paris climate change commitment, just that it run “a distant third” to price and reliability.