Tony Abbott says PM should know in six months if he can win election

Tony Abbott has raised the stakes in the leadership debate, echoing Barnaby Joyce’s language on a deadline for the PM.

Tony Abbott says Malcolm Turnbull should know in six months whether he can win the next election. Picture: Aaron Francis

Tony Abbott says he would “expect” Malcolm Turnbull to have a sense of whether he can win the election six months out from the poll, following Barnaby Joyce’s call for the Prime Minister to consider stepping aside if the Coalition’s poll numbers to do not improve by Christmas.

The former prime minister this morning said the government should be confident by Christmas it has a winning strategy for next year’s election but warned against making that decision based on Newspoll.

“You would expect the government, with six months to go before the election to have a sense that it can win,” Mr Abbott told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

“That is not so much a function of the opinion polls but a function of a government which is giving our people something to fight for and voters something to hope for because we have got to believe in ourselves.

“We have got to think that the polices we are putting forward are in accordance with our values and principles but at the same time they have got to be things the Australian people can say ‘yes that is a good idea’.”

Mr Abbott said it would be easier to attack Bill Shorten if the government had a strong sense of what it stood for.

“It is much easier to attack the other side if people think that there is something crystal clear that you stand for yourself, now I was obviously extremely critical of the Rudd and Gillard governments but when I was leader of the party no one was in any doubt of what we were trying to do,” he said.

‘Thanks, but no thanks’

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he’ll ignore his former deputy Barnaby Joyce’s advice that he should resign from the top job if he’s still behind in the polls at Christmas, Sarah Elks reports.

“Well, look, I saw what he said and he’s free to provide his advice, but I can assure you, I will be leading the Liberal Party and the Liberal National coalition to the next election, which will be held in the first half of next year, in accordance with the time table, with the constitution,” Mr Turnbull said at a road funding press conference south of Brisbane this afternoon.

Mr Turnbull yesterday lost his 30th Newspoll in a row, the same standard he cited when he rolled then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott for the Liberal Party leadership.

Liberal MP takes aim at Joyce

Liberal senator Linda Reynolds earlier slammed Mr Joyce for putting a timeline on Mr Turnbull’s future, declaring the former deputy prime minister should be the last person to comment on leadership.

The West Australian senator said the Prime Minister would remain leader at the next election and warned it would hurt the Coalition if there was another leadership change.

“Of all the people to be commenting on leadership issues at the moment Barnaby is probably last on the list given the circumstances of how he lost his leadership,” Senator Reynolds told Sky News.

“But there is no challenge, there will be no challenge, Malcolm Turnbull will be the Prime Minister at the next election, my colleagues have made it very clear and it is certainly not in the self interest.”

Senator Reynolds defended three cabinet ministers – Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Peter Dutton – who yesterday said they wanted to be prime minister one day.

“To be fair to them it is not spontaneous, they have been asked, and all of us in life have ambitions and I think they have all made it very clear that they fully support Malcolm Turnbull, there is no leadership challenge and he will be the leader at the next election,” she said.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Barnaby Joyce was wrong to put a deadline on Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.

Ms Bishop said the Prime Minister would lead the party to the next election. But she would not rule out a tilt for the top job if it was vacated by Christmas, as recommended by Mr Joyce last night if the Newspoll did not improve for the Coalition.

Mr Joyce said last night Mr Turnbull should “do the honourable thing” and stand aside if he failed to put the Coalition in a winning position by Christmas.

“I don’t agree with Barnaby Joyce, the Prime Minister will lead us to the next election,” Ms Bishop told ABC radio.

“I’m focused on the roles I have, I have been elected by my colleagues to be the deputy leader of the Liberal Party, I’m Australia’s Foreign Minister so my priority is to focus on the jobs and responsibilities I have now.”

Ms Bishop played down comments from cabinet ministers Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg, who yesterday said they wanted to be prime minister one day.

“This is all hypothetical, presumably my colleagues were speaking about their future ambitions, they have all said that Malcolm Turnbull will lead us to the next election so I think we need to look at their comments in that context,” Ms Bishop said.