Opposition leader Bill Shorten has taken Prime Minister Tony Abbott to task for dismissing speculation about a challenge to his leadership as insider chatter.
"It's not insider talk for Australians to want to know who the prime minister is going to be," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.
"It's not insider talk to express concerns of wrong firings of this government."
Liberals have lost government in Victoria and Queensland, and federally they are lagging well behind Labor in national opinion polls.
The prime minister has been blamed for much of the malaise.
Mr Shorten thinks Mr Abbott should stop worrying about protecting his job.
The federal government needed to forget who is selling the message and focus on policies, Mr Shorten added.
"The best advice I could give on behalf of Australia is drop your GP tax, drop your $100,000 degrees, drop your cuts to families and drop your cuts to pensions," he said.
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