By Matt Walsh
CANBERRA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has revealed he has not ruled out a return to leadership, after he used a book launch to lay out a five-point plan for winning the next federal election.
Divisions within the coalition government are more apparent than at any time since sitting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull ousted Abbott in September 2015, after Abbott inflamed tensions by saying the government was "drifting to defeat" under its current policy model.
Speaking at a book launch overnight, the backbencher laid out his own plans for the government to win the next election, while he reportedly told government defector Cory Bernardi that he had not given up hope of returning to the top job if the opportunity arises.
"We'll cut the (renewable energy target) to help with your power bills; we'll cut immigration to make housing more affordable; we'll scrap the Human Rights Commission to stop official bullying; we'll stop all new spending to end ripping off our grandkids; and we'll reform the Senate to have government, not gridlock," Abbott said at the book launch.
Later he told Sky News that rising discontent with the major parties in Australian politics needed to force change, pointing to the rise of the One Nation party and Bernardi's breakaway Australian Conservatives party as reasons to be concerned.
"Plainly we are facing many challenges, the Cory Bernardi breakaway a couple of weeks back, and One Nation support is surging," Abbott said.
"If you want a good government you really have no option but to back the coalition, but plainly there are lots of people concerned about our direction. Plainly the risk is we will drift to defeat if we don't lift our game."
But Turnbull has hit back at Abbott on Friday, claiming for the former prime minister was deliberately trying to destabilize his government.
"Tony Abbott is a very experienced politician. He knows exactly what he's doing. I'm not going to go into what private conversations I have with him," Turnbull told Macquarie radio.
"(But) every member of the government has got to ask the question, are they contributing to the success of the government?"
Turnbull said, under his direction, the government had followed through on its promises it took to the 2016 federal election.
"I have not talked about abolishing the life gold pass... I have abolished it. I haven't talked about restoring the rule of law to the building sector, I've done it," he said.
Other government ministers weighed into the debate on Friday. Defense Industry Minister Christopher Pyne described Abbott's plan as one which can be "catastrophic."
"We won't be slashing spending (and) we won't be going down the track of putting a freeze of immigration, for example, which Tony Abbott wants to do, because it would be catastrophic," Pyne told the Nine Network.
"The last time Tony Abbott was leader, one of the last polls had him at 30 percent to (Opposition Leader) Bill Shorten's 48 percent as preferred prime minister. So we are on the right track with Malcolm Turnbull and with the government's policies."
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann agreed, telling Sky News that Abbott's "destructive commentary" was not helping.
"He's not helping our cause, he's not helping our country and he's not helping himself. Much of what he says is either wrong or inconsistent with what he did when he was Prime Minister," Cormann said on Friday.
Meanwhile opposition spokesperson Anthony Albanese said the government was in "shambles."
"The government doesn't have an agenda, doesn't have a sense of purpose, and Tony Abbott's solution is to say 'take what I did in the 2014 budget and go more extreme, go harder'. He just hasn't got the message at all," Albanese told the Nine Network.
"Tony Abbott is delusional and the government is dysfunctional."
