Malcolm Turnbull says the man he replaced as prime minister is to blame for the latest opinion poll that shows support for the Coalition has slumped to a new low.
The Newspoll shows a primary vote of 34 per cent, the worst result since the Coalition won power in 2013.
On a two party preferred basis, the government is trailing the Labor Opposition by 10 percentage points.
The polling was conducted over several days, beginning on Thursday last week - the same day Tony Abbott gave a speech in which he offered some sharp criticisms of the Turnbull government.
Malcolm Turnbull says the timing is no coincidence.
"We saw an outburst on Thursday and it had its desired impact on the Newspoll. It was exactly as predicted and as calculated."
The prime minister says he will not let Mr Abbott distract him from governing.
"As I said, it was - he knew exactly what he was doing and he did it. I'm not going to be distracted by that. It's a fact of life. That's what's happened. I am focused on the jobs of Australians."
Malcolm Turnbull has retained his edge on Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister, leading 40 per cent to 33.
But Labor senator Sam Dastyari says the numbers spell trouble for Mr Turnbull's leadership.
"There is nobody in this building who still believes that Malcolm Turnbull is going to survive with these types of numbers. And you're going to have conservative politician after conservative politician, Liberal politician after Liberal politician, walk out and say 'oh look, you know, there's only one poll that matters, it's the poll on election day' and 'it's all fine' and 'nothing to see here' and 'the house is not on fire'. The house is on fire!"
Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce says the poll should remind his government to listen to the concerns of voters.
" We do not rest - well, I don't rest, and we just keep going as hard as we can. Some people say polls go up and polls go down, I'm not a fool, I've read them and what they are is a motivation to me that people have concerns, they want to be heard, and that's precisely what I do in my job, and I intend to keep doing. We have to sell the message. We have to tell people how hard we are working and I intend to do that. "
The real winner in Monday's poll was Pauline Hanson.
One Nation appears to have been the beneficiary of the Coalition's falling numbers.
It now has a primary vote of 10 percent - double what it polled in November and equal to the Greens.
Crossbench South Australian senator Nick Xenophon says the strong support for One Nation, as well as his own Nick Xenophon Team, is evidence of voter dissatisfaction with the major
'I think it's a case of anyone but the two major parties. I know in my home state, pretty solid support for my team at around 20 percent, from the polls that I've seen. So it just gives you an idea that people want an alternative. I think that the alternative is somewhere in the political centre, not to the right or left of the major parties."
