‘We’re just recycling rubbish’

PM Tony Abbott has made light of the latest round of leadership speculation, calling it 'recycled rubbish'.

Watch your back: Prime Minister Tony Abbott during his speech on National Security at the Australian Federal Police headquarters last month. Picture: Stefan Postles Source: Supplied

TONY Abbott has laughed off the latest round of leadership talk as recycled rubbish, saying the matter was settled by the party room three weeks ago.

But talk of a second spill motion this week persists, after reports a majority of Liberal MPs and senators now want to dump him.

A relaxed prime minister poked fun at the rumours at a Clean Up Australia Day event on NSW's south coast on Sunday.

"This is Clean Up Australia Day, and I'm just not going to do anything but recycle the rubbish," he joked.

"And that's what's happening, we're just recycling rubbish today."

MORE: ABBOTT CLAWS BACK GROUND IN POLLS

Picture: Simon Bullard. Source: News Corp Australia

Got one! Prime Minister Tony Abbott at Kilalea State Park in Shell Harbor promoting Clean Up Australia Day. Picture: Simon Bullard. Source: News Corp Australia

Yes, that's a can. Source: News Corp Australia

The party room settled the matter three weeks ago, when a spill motion was defeated 61-39, and now the coalition was getting on with governing, Mr Abbott said.

"Frankly I think the people of Australia are sick of the insider obsessions of people in Canberra," he told reporters.

Prospective leadership contenders Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull steered clear of the speculation, with both declaring their support for the prime minister.

Mr Turnbull said it was "absolutely critical" Liberals concentrated on the NSW election and the return of the Baird government.

"The big political question in the next four weeks is the NSW state election," he told reporters on his Sunday morning walk in Sydney.

"The prime minister has my support. He has the support of the cabinet and life goes on." Ms Bishop dismissed the continued rumblings as hypothetical, after News Corp reported the foreign minister would put her hand up in the event of a spill.

"The prime minister has not been challenged. There was a spill motion that didn't succeed, and what we're doing is focusing on governing," she told Network Ten.

The latest opinion poll shows a slight recovery for the govt, in a good sign for Tony Abbott's leadership.

Asked if there would be a leadership spill this week, Abbott loyalist Josh Frydenberg told ABC TV: "I hope not."

The Liberal frontbencher said Mr Abbott would never convince some MPs he was right for the top job.

"If he delivered the Gettysburg Address, if he won the Nobel prize, they'd still take the position that they want a change in leader," Mr Frydenberg said.

He believed the prime minister should be given clear air to do his job.

"You can't please all of the people all of the time," Mr Abbott said, when asked about his colleague's comments.

"The important thing is to get on with the job of government."

POLLS: ABBOTT CLAWS BACK GROUND

Tony Abbott is staging an unlikely recovery in the polls even as speculation about his leadership rumbles on.

A Fairfax-Ipsos poll published yesterday puts the coalition almost neck-and-neck with Labor in two-party terms at 49-51. That's the best result since October and a big improvement on the 54-46 split recorded in January.

Labor's primary vote dropped four points to sit at 36 per cent, while the coalition has gained four points to hit 42 per cent, the poll of 1406 voters suggests.

The results confirm a surge in government support suggested last week by Newspoll, which found primary support for the government rising three points.

Yet Mr Abbott continues to lag former leader Malcolm Turnbull as preferred leader, losing out in all 10 of the leadership attributes surveyed.

A fifth of those polled believe Mr Abbott enjoys the confidence of his party. Half think Mr Turnbull does.

Labor leader Bill Shorten remains preferred prime minister, but his margin has been slashed from 16 points to five to sit at 44-39. Mr Abbott laughed off the latest round of leadership speculation on Sunday, amid talk of a second spill motion.

He said the matter had been settled by the party room three weeks ago.

The poll has a 2.6 per cent margin of error.

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