Peter Dutton has admitted that he's working the phones in a bid to secure the numbers to defeat Malcolm Turnbull in a second leadership ballot.
During two radio interviews the morning after losing a leadership challenge in the Liberal party room 48 votes to 35, Dutton said he would consider challenging the prime minister again if he had the support from a majority of his colleagues in the Liberal party.
“I need to continue to talk to colleagues because I want to talk to them about the ways in which I think we can beat [Labor leader] Bill Shorten at the next election,” Dutton told Radio 3AW on Wednesday.
"You don't go into a ballot believing you're going to lose and if I believe that a majority of colleagues support me then I would consider my position, that is being very honest and upfront."
When asked if he was working the phones, the former home affairs minister said: "Of course I am, I’m speaking to colleagues, I’m not going to beat around the bush with that. I’m happy to be honest and say yes I am talking to colleagues, colleagues are talking to me and that is the reality."
Dutton says his Liberal colleagues needs to judge what puts the Coalition in the best position to stop Labor and Bill Shorten from walking away with the keys to The Lodge at the next federal election.
"I believe, as I said yesterday, that I have ideas and a vision for Australia...I believe that I have got the experience to defeat Bill Shorten," he told 3AW.
Dutton's camp claim they have 40 out of the 43 votes required to call another Liberal partyroom meeting. Could be as soon as this afternoon or tomorrow.
In an interview with Triple M's Hot Breakfast team, Dutton named high electricity prices, small businesses taking jobs overseas, farmers in drought, people sitting in gridlock traffic, and infrastructure in capital cities as major issues on his policy agenda.
He called for the Coalition to dump company tax cuts; remove the GST on power bills for struggling pensioners, self-funded retirees and families; and hold a royal commission into electricity and fuel companies.
Dutton said the Coalition needs to be “very clear and succinct” about its message, policy ideas, and vision for the country.
“I think at the moment people are struggling to understand what it is the government stands for,” he told Triple M.
Turnbull supporter Craig Laundy told Sky News he was disappointed that Dutton wasn't respecting the results of Tuesday's ballot.
Laundy called for his party to unite and “stop navel gazing”.
"However, what I am pleased to hear is that the PM has worked constructively overnight with cabinet colleagues who weren’t supportive of him in yesterday’s leadership vote, and they’ve agreed to stay on and work with the PM in a spirit of unification and come together to focus on ... the real opponent here, which is Bill Shorten," Laundy said.
Seven ministers have so far advised the prime minister they are willing to resign from the frontbench, after revealing they voted for Dutton in Tuesday's failed leadership challenge.
Health minister Greg Hunt, cyber security minister Angus Taylor, international development minister Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, citizenship minister Alan Tudge, assistant minister to the treasurer Michael Sukkar, assistant minister to the prime minister James McGrath, and assistant minister for science Zed Seselja offered their resignations on Tuesday night.
It's understood the prime minister has so far only accepted the resignation of NSW conservative senator Fierravanti-Wells, who quit the front bench in a strongly worded letter.
In a press conference on Wednesday after the Senate voted down the company tax cut legislation, Turnbull announced the government would not take the policy to the next election.
He also revealed the government would not seek to take away the energy supplement given to pensioners that was aimed at compensating them for the carbon tax which is no longer in existence.
It was also reported that attorney-general Christian Porter would ask the solicitor-general to look into whether Dutton was ineligible to be elected under section 44 of the Australian constitution after Fairfax reported that childcare centres operated by a company owned by Dutton's wife had been paid millions by the Commonwealth government in the last four years.
Under section 44 someone is ineligible if they have any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth.
In Question Time, the prime minister said Dutton had assured him he had legal advice that he was in the clear. But Turnbull said he had not personally seen it.