Barnaby Joyce has a message for despondent senior Liberals said to be preparing for life in opposition: you can only solve the nation's problem from government.
The Nationals leader and deputy prime minister was responding to a Daily Telegraph report which claims discussions among senior Libs have actually begun about political life post-2019, with conversations about who would be opposition leader and deputy leader.
"No, no, no," Mr Joyce told ABC radio on Tuesday.
The government had to make sure it was delivering to its constituency.
"You've got be able to go into bat for people when they're under the pump ... and you can't do that from opposition, you do that from government."
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Despite being depicted by the Tele as one of the clowns in the Canberra circus, Mr Joyce insisted he was a very happy man.
He rattled off a list of coalition government achievements including overseeing a huge turnaround in the agriculture sector, boosting funding for dams, increasing live exports and a start to the inland rail project.
Nationals MP Damien Drum said he was not occupied at all by the prospect of being in opposition.
"The only thought about opposition is the horror that would beset my electorate if Bill Shorten is the prime minister," he told reporters at Parliament House.
"If we have that man as prime minister, God help the seat of Murray."
Labor leader Bill Shorten says Mr Turnbull's only achievement for the year has been to make Mr Dutton look like a leadership candidate.
Mr Shorten told the Labor caucus on Tuesday the prime minister had begun holding media conferences simply to attack his predecessor Tony Abbott.
"All of the contenders and pretenders, whether it's Julie Bishop, Tony Abbott, Peter Dutton or a lump of coal - they all support cuts to families, cuts to schools, cuts to Medicare and cuts to penalty rates," Mr Shorten said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told a joint partyroom meeting on Tuesday all coalition MPs needed to focus on the issues that matter to families and businesses.
"We have a duty to Australia and to our constituents to stick together, to be united," Mr Turnbull said.
"We've got a strong performance and when an election comes in two years time we will be judged on that performance - we need to keep building on that."
During the meeting one MP said the government needed to drop its "bean-counter language", while another MP said more work was needed on explaining the role of members.
