One of federal cabinet's leading conservatives has cautioned Tony Abbott to stay constructive in his criticism of politics.
Senior minister Peter Dutton says both sides of politics have a great deal of respect for their former leaders and prime ministers - even Labor for Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
"It is a two-way process, though, where former leaders also need to show respect to the current leader and the current party," he told ABC TV on Sunday.
"I don't support criticisms where they're not constructive."
Mr Abbott, who remains on the government's backbench, has been increasingly vocal about what he believes should be the coalition and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's direction.
Asked whether he thought the former prime minister was showing adequate respect for Mr Turnbull's leadership, Mr Dutton said: "If he's saying that Bill Shorten would be a disastrous prime minister for this country, I do applaud him."
The immigration minister has been touted as a possible replacement leader in some recent media reports, but he insists his intention is only to be "a good part and a constructive part and a positive part" of the Turnbull prime ministership, "which I hope goes for a long time".
"There are 150 members in the lower house of parliament ... one that's prime minister and there's 149 that want to be," he said.
"I'm just one of a humble 149."
Nevertheless, he says his approach has always been "rock solid loyal" to the leader.
Labor linked the government's crackdown on temporary foreign workers and citizenship requirements to Mr Abbott's outspokeness,
Senior opposition frontbencher Richard Marles said the politics of the immigration announcements over the past week was palpable and rank.
"Is this really what it was about in rolling Tony Abbott, that Malcolm Turnbull would end up in this place?" he told Sky News.
"It seems to me if this is where he was going to be, I don't understand why there was a move to remove Tony Abbott in the first place because that's all we have now got."
