Abbott government ministers must "get on with our jobs" and ignore talk of a sweeping frontbench reshuffle that could see up to half a dozen ministers moved on by December, Christopher Pyne says.
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But the Education Minister has admitted renewed discussion of a reshuffle will cause further damage to the government's political strategy and messaging, eight days before the critical Canning byelection is held.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has long planned an end of year ministerial shake-up and bringing forward such a move could assist in heading off a leadership challenge, which Liberal MPs have also been discussing in Canberra this week.
The reshuffle would see older ministers who have also served in the Howard government moved on and young blood like Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Assistant Immigration Minister Michaelia Cash promoted to cabinet.
Parliamentary secretaries including Kelly O'Dwyer, Michael McCormack and Christian Porter are tipped to move to the outer ministry.
And according to News Corp reports, Defence Minister Kevin Andrews, Employment Minister Eric Abetz and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane - all of whom served as ministers in the Howard government - could be first in line to go, as could one of the government's star performers, Trade Minister Andrew Robb.
Mr Andrews on Thursday suggested Australia would be engaged in fighting the Islamic State for two to three years, an estimate corrected by Mr Abbott later in the day.
Mr Pyne told Nine's Today show that reports of a reshuffle were "speculative, they come and go, they take a journalist 10 minutes to write and they do all sorts of distracting damage during the day".
"At the end of the day the Prime Minister chooses who is in his cabinet and his ministry. All the people you have mentioned are good men doing a good job and the government is getting on with the job," he said.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton played down talk of a reshuffle and said it was a matter for Mr Abbott.
"In the end we inherited a very difficult task economically from Labor, Liberal governments always have to clean up Labor's messes, we have had tough decisions to make as a government over the course of the last two years," he told ABC radio.
"In terms of the composition of the front bench for the foreseeable future, that is always an issue in the domain of the Prime Minister."
Two weeks ago, Fairfax Media revealed Mr Abbott was being urged to dump Treasurer Joe Hockey if the Canning byelection goes badly for the Liberal Party, reshuffle his frontbench to reset the government's message and then call a March poll.
Mr Abbott dismissed suggestions he was about to dump the Treasurer and said this week that it was his "very strong expectation" that Mr Hockey would deliver a third budget.
Mr Pyne said on Friday that Mr Hockey was doing a "fantastic job in very difficult financial circumstances in the world at the moment. He is a great Treasurer. I'm sure his job is absolutely secure. But all of us just have to get on with our jobs".
Fairfax Media has spoken to more than a dozen Liberal MPs in the last week about the government's strategy, messaging and its ambition for economic and industrial relations reforms ahead of the next election.
There is widespread despondency among Liberal MPs about the government's fortunes - though many were buoyed by Mr Abbott's handling of the decisions to take an additional 12,000 Syrian refugees and extend air strikes against Islamic State into Syria - but there are growing expectations the Prime Minister could face a leadership challenge before the end of the year.
A reshuffle would, in theory, help head that move off.
Liberal MPs have not settled on who an alternative leader to Mr Abbott would be, but Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Social Services Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop all feature prominently in discussions about an alternative leadership "ticket" for a new prime minister and treasurer.
Several MPs said there was a growing sense on the backbench that a challenge was inevitable if Mr Abbott could not turn the government's fortunes around but unlike in February, the move would have to be made by the frontbench, not the backbench.
One MP spoke for many when he said the government's problems were "90 per cent the fault of the PMO [Prime Minister's Office]".
