Tony Abbott has pledged his "full support" for Malcolm Turnbull, just hours after launching his strongest attack on the government and calling for a range of conservative policy changes.
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Mr Abbott said on Thursday night the government was drifting towards defeat, offering a five-point plan to make the next election winnable for the Coalition, including cutting back immigration and scrapping the Human Rights Commission.
Denying he was "taking pot-shots" at Coalition colleagues, Mr Abbott has received support from Tasmanian Liberal Eric Abetz, who accused Prime Minister Turnbull of name-calling in his response to attacks on Friday.
Amid criticism from colleagues, including Finance Minister Mathias Cormann for his latest intervention, Mr Abbott said the government needed "a clear direction and strong purpose for the rest of this term of Parliament".
"I'm not in the business of taking pot-shots at my colleagues," he told Channel Nine.
"My colleagues can say what they think is best but I'm in the business of trying to ensure that our country and our party are going forward."
Asked about Mr Turnbull's response to latest criticism, Mr Abbott said: "He's the Prime Minister. He's the person that the party chose to lead the government and obviously I support the leader of the government.
"I did everything I humanly could to get the Turnbull government re-elected and I did everything I could to help the Prime Minister win the election. We just got there.
"Having got the government back into office, I think my duty now is to try to keep us on the right track and I'll keep doing that."
Earlier Mr Turnbull said every Coalition MP should ask if they are contributing to the government's success and said Mr Abbott "knows exactly what he's doing and so do his colleagues".
"I'm not going to be provoked," Mr Turnbull told Melbourne radio station 3AW when asked if he would punish Mr Abbott.
"The fact is my government has a record of achievement. In the last six months or so since the election, we have achieved more with fewer seats in the Senate, in the House, than in the previous three years."
Senator Abetz - a close ally of Mr Abbott and dumped from cabinet by Mr Turnbull - said the latest criticism of the government shouldn't be considered through the lens of leadership destabilisation and should prompt serious policy debate.
Mr Abbott reportedly told Liberal defector Cory Bernardi he wanted another tilt at the top job, prompting Mr Turnbull to describe the comments as "sad" while offering a strong defence of his record in government.
Senator Abetz said the latest turmoil was contained to "the Canberra bubble".
"Just because somebody is putting forward a set of policies [they] should not be described as sad," he told Sky on Friday.
"These are all issues that are meritorious in themselves, worthy of debate and consideration without the unfortunate name-calling that has been engaged in."
Earlier, the former employment minister told Tasmanian commercial radio Mr Abbott's criticism was not designed to undermine Mr Turnbull or to "pump up Tony Abbott's tyres".
"Given we have 5, 6 per cent rate of unemployment, does it make sense to keep encouraging a lot of people to come to Australia, knowing that some of the people who have come to Australia in recent times have been welfare recipients for over a decade? Is that adding to our economic and social wellbeing? The answer is no.
"The Liberal Party, the government at the moment, is lagging in the polls so it's not surprising that there will be active minds saying: 'How can we lift ourselves in the polls?'
Senator Abetz said senior conservatives should not have been exiled from cabinet after Mr Abbott was rolled as leader in September 2015, an apparent reference to himself and former defence minister Kevin Andrews.
"Leadership requires that you bring everybody into the tent, that you ensure that everybody is listened to and respected. That is why I said right from day one when the leadership changed that the basic expulsion of senior conservatives out of the ministry was not going to assist party unity. I remain of that view."
Asked if Mr Turnbull had his support, Senator Abetz said "yes". He said he wasn't aware of any planned moves against Mr Turnbull.
"The elected leader of the parliamentary party - whoever he or she may be - has my support," he said.
