Abbott under fire as Labor latches onto leadership speculation

Tony Abbott has come under fire after saying he was “worried about being the best possible Prime Minister”.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Source: AAP

Labor launched on the Prime Minister’s comments amid leadership speculation, using Question Time to rib Mr Abbott on the statement.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten was the first to broach the subject, asking the Prime Minister to “nominate a single person sitting behind him who thinks he is the best possible Prime Minister”.

His question was ruled out of order, though Mr Shorten tried again.

“In the two years since he became Prime Minister, unemployment is up, debt and deficit is up, growth is down, confidence is certainly down,” he said.

“Is this the record of the best possible Prime Minister?”

Mr Abbott returned the ribbing, accusing Mr Shorten of “backstabbing two prime ministers”.

“All this Leader of the Opposition can do is play politics, play Canberra games and indulge in all this kind of silliness when the people of Australia want a Government which gets on with the job,” he said.

“And that's exactly what we have done.”          

                                 

Shadow Communications Minister Jason Clare also tried to engage his government counterpart during Question Time, asking Malcolm Turnbull whether Mr Abbott was “the best possible PM?”

His question was ruled “inventive”, but out of order.

Mr Turnbull has refused to comment on speculation that he may challenge for the top job this week.

Nine Network political editor Laurie Oakes said that Mr Turnbull has refused requests from Abbott supporters to publicly rule out a challenge.

Oakes said government whip Andrew Nikolic sent a message to Mr Turnbull, reportedly at the request of Mr Abbott, and there was a request from another senior Abbott backer. Mr Nikolic wrote similar messages in February.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Abbott told reporters that he refused to “get caught up in Canberra gossip” and ruled out calling a snap election.

“I expect that the government will go to the middle of next year and maybe a bit beyond, because that's what we were elected to do three years ago,” he said.

“…The public don't like this insider gossip. The public don't like the Canberra games, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm never going to play them.”