By Naomi Woodley Tuesday 10 March 2015
Photo: Arthur Sinodinos says his support for the PM is based on performance and his capacity to make the right calls. (AAP: Alan Porritt)
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A senior Government backbencher who supported last month's failed motion for a leadership spill says the Prime Minister has changed his behaviour, but will still be judged on his future performance.
The motion to bring on a challenge to Tony Abbott's leadership gained significant momentum, when the former Assistant Treasurer, Arthur Sinodinos said his support for the Prime Minister was "not unconditional."
Senator Sinodinos made it clear before last month's motion to bring on a leadership spill that he would support it.
However, on Monday night Senator Sinodinos told Lateline backbenchers now feel more free to complain directly to the Prime Minister about the way his office is run.
"The mood of the backbench, as you can see by the fact that it was a 39-61 loss, was that the Prime Minister should be given the time, the clear air to change things that were of concern to the backbench and ministers, and we give him the time to do all of that and then we see how things go," he said.
However, Senator Sinodinos would not put a timeframe on the Prime Minister's leadership.
"The Prime Minister heeded the message and changed his behaviour. So we're all getting behind him to make sure that that change works," he said.
"But as I said, I'm judged on my performance, the Prime Minister is judged on his performance.
"My job is to get behind him and help him improve his performance and make it a sustained improvement could we win the next election."
Senator Sinodinos said Mr Abbott had also made it clear since the spill that he took responsibility for the actions of his office, including his chief of staff Peta Credlin.
"And what he said to me and other people is: if there is a complaint about his office then go to him and that's what people do," he said.
"They go to him and I think they feel freer about going to him on that now than they did some time back."
'Credlin should be judged on performance'
Senator Sinodinos, who served as chief of staff to prime minister John Howard, said he also did not believe Ms Credlin and Federal Director of the Liberal Party Brian Loughnane should be judged because they are married, but on their performance in their respective roles.
"The point I've made before is I have known Brian Loughnane, I have known Peta a long time but I have known Brian longer," he said.
"If I have a beef I can go to Brian and we can speak pretty directly about it."
Senator Sinodinos said there was no succession planning happening within the Liberal party, but he rejected the suggestion Malcolm Turnbull, the man considered most likely to take over as PM if there was a successful spill, was too progressive to lead the Liberals.
"This is not a party which is defined by any one part of its base," he said.
"It's got a broader base than that. So it's a furphy to say that X or Y is somehow outside the mainstream of the party.
"The fact of the matter is, Turnbull is a capitalist. He believes in market principles. Yes sure, he's socially progressive in inverted commas on certain issues but so are many others in the party and others are more conservative."
He said the backbench was now behind Mr Abbott and was working to help him succeed.
He said the decisions in recent weeks to drop the Medicare co-payment, back down on defence pay and lay out a plan for the future submarine project were all pressure points that needed to be resolved.
But the latest Newspoll in the Australian newspaper shows there was still work to be done for the Coalition to be re-elected.
Despite the recent policy changes, the Coalition's two-party preferred vote has fallen by two points, and Labor's has gone up by the same amount, to give the Opposition a lead of 55 to 45 per cent.
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