CANBERRA, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Conservative factions of Australia's coalition government have continued to pile pressure onto newly re-elected Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday, with right-wing ministers blaming Turnbull's superannuation policy as a reason why the election was almost lost.
Divisions within the coalition began to open up on Wednesday when a number of backbenchers slammed the policy, with some going so far as to say it was the reason the winnable election was so close.
The division means one of Turnbull's first challenges as re-elected PM is to regain the support of his own party.
On Thursday, Liberal Senator Eric Abetz was the latest conservative to blame Turnbull's super policy for the close result; he urged the prime minister to reassess his position and to consider the close election result as a warning from coalition voters.
"When you have had such a big kick up the pants, as we have had as the coalition, and especially the Liberal Party element of the coalition, then I think it is worthwhile to ask the question; 'why did we hemorrhage so many seats?" Abetz told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.
Part of Turnbull's federal budget was dedicated to superannuation reform, with a significant change being the amount of money that retirees could save before they are taxed.
Abetz said the policy was concocted without proper consultation with the partyroom, as the coalition was in a rush to collate the budget's policies before it was due back in May.
"The superannuation measures were presented to the partyroom at the budget and then the budget was immediately announced to the people and we went off to an election, so this matter has not been properly ventilated through the partyroom," Abetz said.
"It's quite clear now from leaks from within cabinet that there were misgivings within the cabinet and backbenchers right around the country have indicated their misgivings."
West Australian Liberal senator Chris Back was one of those disgruntled conservative backbenchers, and said voters punished the coalition as a result of the super changes.
"There were certainly people who said to me we will vote Liberal in the House of Representatives but we won't support you in the Senate," Back told the ABC.
But Turnbull's cabinet ministers attempted to quell the unrest, with Finance Minister Mathias Cormann saying that Australians had re-elected the government on the policies outlined in the budget.
"We took an agenda to the election, the Australian people voted in this election about their preferred team, their preferred plan and we now have a responsibility to get on with the job of implementing the plan that we took to the election," Cormann said.
Coalition MPs will head to the partyroom to discuss the election result next week.
