Tony Abbott has admitted that he "can always do better as prime minister" as he praised the performance of several key ministers - but not Treasurer Joe Hockey.
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In a frank interview with radio station 2GB in Sydney, Mr Abbott urged his colleagues to "stop talking about themselves", lamented the government's failure to pass more legislation in the Senate and warned Australia was at risk of the "European disease" if it did not live within its means.
The omission of Mr Hockey from Mr Abbott's list of ministers who were worthy of praise comes soon after News Corp reported that the Treasurer and former Health Minister Peter Dutton opposed a $20 cut to the rebate paid to doctors during a fiery expenditure review committee meeting late last year.
Mr Abbott, who has been the subject of growing internal criticism, said on Friday his government "actually had a lot to be proud of from last year", including stopping the flow of asylum seeker boats, repealing the carbon tax and signing three free trade agreements.
"I'd be the first to say that I can always do better, the government can always do better but we aren't going to do better by talking about ourselves, we are going to do better by getting on with government," he said, adding that "our main fault is that we haven't been able to get legislation past the opposition-dominated Senate."
"I really regret that, I really do, and maybe if I had had more dinners with the crossbenchers, maybe if I had spoken more sweetly to Bill Shorten this would have been different, but in the end this country does have to live within its means. We are at risk of succumbing to the European disease, we are at risk of becoming a second-rate nation living on its luck."
"I'm incredibly proud of the work of my ministers, all of them, whether it be Scott Morrison or Julie Bishop or Malcolm Turnbull or Andrew Robb, I'm very proud of all of them."
On the decision to abandon the cut to GP rebates, which came only 24 hours after Mr Abbott had defended the plan, the Prime Minister conceded the backflip had been "inelegant".
Mr Abbott brushed aside a question about whether he would consider his position if the party's polling did not improve in 2015.
In September Mr Abbott said he was reviewing the performance of his frontbench but that all deserved either As or A pluses.
