Barnaby Joyce, like other senior Turnbull government ministers, was preparing for something a lot worse than the latest Newspoll that came on the back of internal coalition ructions he labelled "disturbances".
The acting prime minister and cabinet colleagues, faced with a 15th consecutive poll showing the coalition in an election-losing position, had been expecting voters to mark down the government for infighting ignited by the public utterances of former leader Tony Abbott.
Instead, remaining six points behind Labor meant they could take aim at Bill Shorten, even though the opposition leader made up some ground on Malcolm Turnbull as preferred prime minister.
"I acknowledge we've had some disturbances over the last couple of weeks, you know people musing in the media about a whole range of things," Mr Joyce told radio 2GB on Monday.
"I thought after a week like that, the Labor Party would have gone a lot better."
Both parties recorded a one per cent drop in their primary vote, with the coalition's 35 per cent taking it back to an early 2015 level when Mr Abbott faced an "empty chair" leadership spill.
After preferences, Labor leads the coalition 53-47 per cent.
Mr Joyce, who is holding the fort while Mr Turnbull is in Europe for post-G20 meetings, said the coalition obviously would prefer to be ahead.
Cabinet colleague Mathias Cormann said Labor, not the government, should be more concerned about the latest poll.
"Given the fortnight that we've had if I was Bill Shorten I'd actually be quite concerned that he didn't make any progress," Senator Cormann said.
He also reckoned the government needed to do quite a bit more work to put itself in a position where it would be competitive for the next election.
"And we will do that," he said.
At least one government backbencher is urging Mr Abbott to move on from parliament and become the next high commissioner to the UK.
"There's been talk about the job offer in London. There's life after politics. He's got a lot of knowledge. He has a lot to offer," Nationals MP Michelle Landry told the Courier Mail.
Ms Landry, a former Abbott backer, once described the Turnbull government as "wishy-washy".
But staunch Abbott supporter Eric Abetz renewed his call for the former leader's reinstatement to cabinet.
"Mr Abbott is a man that (sic) is committed to public life," the veteran Liberal senator told reporters in Hobart.
"He has not pursued wealth, rather he has pursued public service and I believe he remains firmly committed to being of service."
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield urged all colleagues to focus on the task of doing the people's business.
"When you do that you can get some good results," he told Sky News.
