Malcolm Turnbull's coalition government could have as little as a year to run after last week's parliamentary performance, Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese says.
"If Malcolm Turnbull thinks he is going to be defeated within his party room, then he will think about going to the people, rather than having what occurred to Tony Abbott happen to him," Mr Albanese told Sky News on Sunday.
The government suffered three defeats in parliament late on Thursday in the absence of some coalition members, the first time it has happened to a majority government in over 50 years.
Mr Albanese was manager of government business under the minority Gillard Labor and never suffered such a humliating defeat in the parliament.
He said if you can't run the parliament you can't run the country.
"They couldn't survive three days, they lost control of the house," he said.
"It appeared that they disliked each other so much with their internals, they were racing for the door to get out of there."
Manager of opposition business Tony Burke said had Labor won the final motion seeking parliament's endorsement of a banking royal commission, it would have challenged the government's legitimacy.
House leader Christopher Pyne had referred to the fact that the Menzies government had been defeated three times on the House of Representatives floor - enough to justify a government being terminated.
"If you've got a situation where both houses have resolved to do something, and the government doesn't take it to the governor-general, in those circumstances, you got a pretty big question over the extent to which the government is in fact holding the confidence of the parliament," he told ABC TV.
