Scott Morrison has dismissed reports Malcolm Turnbull offered Peter Dutton the position of deputy Liberal leader in a desperate attempt to stop a challenge to his prime ministership.
The Home Affairs Minister turned down the offer because he believed he had the backing of Liberal MPs to seize Mr Turnbull's job, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.
Mr Turnbull was forced to stand down last month after days of leadership turmoil and Mr Morrison went on to beat Mr Dutton in the final partyroom vote.
Asked about the Dutton offer on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said Australians couldn't care less.
"I've been elected to lead the Liberal party which means that I am leading the country as prime minister, that's what matters," he told Seven Network.
"All the rest of it, people can write books about it if they want, they can tweet about it, they can put it on Facebook, they can even do something on Instagram if they like.
"I'm focusing on what matters and what happens and what Australians need me to focus on."
Meanwhile, Fairfax Media has cited Liberal party polling that warned cabinet ministers against the leadership spill.
The internal report said the LNP by-election loss in the Queensland seat of Longman shouldn't be treated as a test case for a federal election.
Instead of Mr Turnbull costing the coalition votes, the report said the scandal over Liberal National Party candidate Trevor Ruthenberg and his military medals had damaged the government's chances.
During the campaign for Longman, Mr Ruthenberg, a former minister in the Newman state government, had to apologise for wrongly claiming he earned a prestigious Australian Service Medal. In fact, he only had an Australian Defence Medal awarded for service of more than four years.
The Longman result was used as justification for a leadership spill by Mr Dutton's backers, who were concerned about a general election wipeout in Queensland.
