Part of the reason for the loss of internal support was the Coalition’s consistently poor performance in the opinion polls.
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He said those seeking to unseat him had to act at that point.
He said lagging polls did not always translate to ineffective government.
Tony Abbott has changed his tune about whether Scott Morrison warned his office of a likely leadership challenge three days before it occurred.
“There’s not going to be a by-election in Warringah any time soon”.
Mr Abbott, who also spoke of his achievements as Prime Minister, insisted nothing had changed on the policy front with the Turnbull government.
There was also concern about the performance of former treasurer Joe Hockey.
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Turnbull promised to consult with both colleagues and the public more often, saying that Australia needed advocacy from its leaders.
“No-one worked longer and harder for our success in opposition and government than she did”, he said. No-one’s ideal. I suppose occasionally she may have spoken brusquely to one or two people.
“But the job of the prime minister’s chief of staff is to be strong, it’s to be tough, it’s to be focused, and look, she did an absolutely marvellous job. I’m not complaining”, he said.
“When someone is absolutely focused on a particular objective they are not going to be put off if they are thrown a few human sacrifices as it were”. “In a policy sense, there is very little departure”, he said.
Mr Abbott said he was fine and he had no immediate plans to quit politics.
“Sure, there’ll be hard times, sure there’ll be ups and there’ll be downs”, he said.
But again, his relationship with his former deputy was not clear-cut, particularly after he said a leader had to “rely on the people who are close to you”.
That we get right away from this concept of changing the leader like you might change your clothes to suit the fashion.
In an interview with 2GB’s Ray Hadley earlier today he criticised those who orchestrated his downfall.
Abbott said he understood, but replied, “It would be awful if people were to abandon the Coalition because of this”. “It’s always better to avoid making a bad situation worse”. “National security policy, the same, and if you listen to the PM and the Treasurer, they’re even using exactly the same phrases that [former treasurer] Joe Hockey and I were using just a fortnight ago”.
Abbott urged the party and voters to stick with the conservative coalition government, even reluctantly, as it prepares for elections in late 2016.
Abbott conceded he had never been a popular leader according to the polls, but he was confident he would have won the next election had he been kept on as prime minister.
But that hasn’t stopped Mr Abbott from lashing out at Mr Morrison and saying he had “misled people”.
The nervous Liberals might be encouraged by a step Mr Abbott today made towards reconciliation with the Treasurer.
“I’m too young to retire, I’ve still got something to contribute to public life”, Mr Abbott said.
“He’s obviously put one construction on the conversation, my office put a different construction on the conversation”.
Mr Abbott said he wanted to put an end to the story and move on because revisiting the saga would be counterproductive.
In his first interviews and press conference last week, Morrison said Australia had a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
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Mr Abbott was ousted in a coup on September 14.
