Former prime minister Tony Abbott has accused Treasurer Scott Morrison of "misleading" the public for claiming he warned his office about a possible leadership challenge.
Mr Morrison said last Friday he told Mr Abbott's office ahead of the challenge by Malcolm Turnbull that "things were febrile" and they should be on high alert.
But Mr Abbott now claims he was never told by anyone, including Mr Morrison personally, about the risk.
"Scott never warned anyone, certainly he never warned me," he told News Corp.
"I spoke to him on Friday - not a hint of a warning, so I'm afraid Scott badly misled people."
Mr Abbott also challenged Mr Morrison's claim the former prime minister tried to throw Joe Hockey under a bus by offering him the treasurer's job, in a bid to save his government.
"Not true, not true," he said.
"I was doing what I could to save the government."
Mr Abbott said he believed Mr Hockey would be judged more kindly in the future than he was in the job as treasurer.
He added that the fact Mr Turnbull had kept all of the government's policy settings showed it was on sound ground.
Mr Abbott confirmed he was not offered a ministerial position by Mr Turnbull.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the comments from the former prime minister and the dumped defence minister, Kevin Andrews, showed the coalition was anything but unified under Mr Turnbull.
"It's certainly trouble in paradise over there isn't it. The government dysfunction continues and the ructions continue and the back stabbing and the backgrounding and the open commentary on each other continues."
Mr Andrews, an Abbott supporter, in an interview published on Tuesday warned the Turnbull government against focusing on the economy at the expense of national security, saying the threat of terror attacks in Australia was set to worsen.
Mr Bowen, who on Tuesday delivered a speech at a tax-reform summit, said Labor was more interested in presenting policy.
"We'll just focus on the contest of ideas. I'll leave the Liberal Party back stabbing each other to them because they're doing a pretty good job of it."
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