Tony Abbott is not a fan of people "running around assassinating the leader" of political parties, but he is available if his party wants him to lead again.
The former prime minister was asked about the latest Newspoll results showing Bill Shorten's personal support was dropping, but Mr Abbott cautioned against changing leaders.
"You can easily make a bad situation worse by changing leaders," he told 2GB radio on Monday.
"You can easily generate such transaction costs that you go backwards, not forwards.
"I'm not a big fan of running around assassinating the leader."
Mr Abbott said he was enjoying being a backbencher because he can speak his mind.
"As long as the party and the people of Warringah want me, I can see myself staying for quite some time because I'm just 60, I think I'm a young 60," he said.
"Sure, I guess it's unusual for a former prime minister to come back, you could really only come back if you were drafted by your party.
"But let's just see how things work out."
Mr Abbott led the coalition to a landslide federal election victory in 2013, but was kicked out by his own MPs just two years later, with polls saying his government was heading towards defeat.
