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Some unhappy, but we're united: ministers

Senior Turnbull government ministers insist the coalition is united despite the leaking of talking points for MPs and senators.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Notes prepared by the prime minister's office for MPs and senators have been leaked to the media. (AAP)

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Source: AAP


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A senior Turnbull government minister admits that some Liberal MPs are still disgruntled about the dumping of Tony Abbott.

But Resources Minister Josh Frydenberg says the leaking of talking points doesn't reflect a broader sense of disunity.

"Malcolm Turnbull has the confidence of the party room and certainly has the confidence of the Australian people," he told ABC TV on Tuesday.

Mr Frydenberg was responding to the leaking of talking points prepared by the Prime Minister's Office for coalition MPs and senators.

Distributed on Monday night they canvassed issues such as jobs and growth, innovation, school funding and the royal commission into trade union corruption.

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The email included a social media meme mocking union donations to the Labor Party.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann also played down claims of dissent within the government.

There was nothing unusual about a government communicating with MPs and senators about its priorities and why its approach was better than the opposition.

"I believe the Turnbull government is a strong and united team," he told ABC Radio.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the government had a good news story to tell and someone had wanted to be out there "slightly earlier than the rest" talking up the coalition's record.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said government MPs were focused on fighting each other.

"Australians know that a party which can't govern itself can't govern the nation," he told reporters following a church service for parliamentarians in Canberra.

Labor senator Sam Dastyari said the leak revealed a Liberal Party in chaos as the right wing "nut bags" of the party tried "to burn the village".

Asked about his own actions during the Rudd and Gillard leadership stoushes, Senator Dastyari told reporters in Canberra: "I know how this ends. I've seen it before.

"This isn't our first rodeo in Australian politics."


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