Tony Abbott has been confronted by a furious Liberal voter and talkback caller who declared the Prime Minister the "world's worst salesman" and warned he was poised to hand the keys to the Lodge to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.
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An under-pressure Prime Minister used an interview on Fairfax radio station 3AW to warn his colleagues that the "one lesson" from the former Labor government was to not change leaders mid-term, while urging the caller, "Andrew", to help sell the government's reform message.
Mr Abbott declared it was "nonsense" to suggest he may not lead the Coalition to the next election.
Andrew described himself as a "Liberal voter through and through", but added: "I've got to be honest and truthful with you, Mr Prime Minster, you're on the nose with Liberal voters and that's a real concern to me because I don't want to see you give the keys to Bill Shorten at the Lodge.
"What are you going to do to turn it around because I have got to tell you you are the world's worst salesman, Prime Minister," he said.
Mr Abbott responded: "What is the specific problem, is there a policy thing you don't agree with?"
"Prime Minister, it's the way you do things, like the Medicare thing, with the education, you've done so many backflips, people don't know where you are going and business is saying there are roadblocks because there is no direction and no leadership … as a Liberal voter, I don't particularly like you," Andrew replied.
Mr Abbott responded that jobs growth in Victoria was strong in 2014, that economic growth had improved from 1.9 per cent in 2013 to 2.7 per cent in 2014 and that "this is a government which is doing something right".
"By all means say that we could do better at salesmanship," Mr Abbott said.
"I would rather under promise and over deliver, I would rather let the facts speak for themselves. If you look at the record, the record is a good one and, Andrew, I would welcome you going out and using your salesmanship skills, which I'm sure are considerable, to help sell the government's message."
During the interview, Mr Abbott brushed aside a Fairfax Media report on Thursday of growing backbench unrest and anger over his government's mishandling of the GP co-payment and university funding changes from last year's budget.
Some Coalition sources have described the atmosphere in the government as tending towards "anarchy" because of the "command and control" approach of the Prime Minister's office.
But on Thursday morning, Mr Abbott, while conceding the government had struggled to pass measures through the Senate, delivered a stern warning to his internal critics and defended the government's planned GP co-payment and university changes.
"If there is one lesson to be learnt from the fate of the former government in Canberra, maybe even the fate of the former government in Victoria, [it] is that you do not change leaders; you rally behind someone and you stick to the plan. We've got a good plan. We inherited a mess, we've made a good start," he said.
He urged Australians – and his colleagues – to look at the government's record of achievement in 2014, including the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes, the signing of three free-trade agreements and the stopping of asylum seeker boats.
"I think last year's record was a record of solid achievement and the important thing is to build on that," he said.
