Former prime minister Tony Abbott during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING

In an interview with 3AW host Neil Mitchell, the Prime Minister said he wasn’t going to speak for Mr Abbott, but said he would not be “provoked” by his comments.

Mr Abbott has released a controversial manifesto with his plan to turn the Coalition around to win back voters overnight.

“I think you’re in a position where you’ve got no choice but to act on him (Abbott)”, Mitchell said.

Mr Turnbull replied: “I’m not going to be provoked.”

“Tony Abbott is a very experienced politician. He knows exactly what he’s doing and so do his colleagues.”

When asked if Mr Abbott’s comments were correct about the Coalition “drifting towards defeat”, Mr Turnbull forthrightly said: “We are not”.

He then went on to say the government was “acting and getting things done”.

RELATED: Coalition in danger of becoming ‘Labor lite’, Tony Abbott says

RELATED: Tony Abbott urges party to change tack or face defeat

Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull is still facing criticism from Tony Abbott. Picture: AAPSource:AAP

His comments come after Mr Abbott reportedly told Cory Bernardi that he hasn’t given up hope of returning to the Liberal party’s leadership.

Sky News’ political reporter Samantha Maiden said that Mr Abbott told Mr Bernardi that he was interested in the leadership last year.

“Cory was told by Tony Abbott that he was interested in the leadership late last year,” Maiden said.

She said conservatives in the party were convinced Turnbull would make a move on same-sex marriage and “that would trigger a leadership change”.

After the news broke, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said Mr Abbott’s comments were “destructive commentary”.

“I find it sad,” he said.

“I’m just saddened by his decision to provide more and more destructive commentary. He’s not helping our cause, he’s not helping our country and he’s not helping himself.

“Much of what he says is wrong or inconsistent.”

Today, Mr Turnbull reiterated his comments, saying Mr Abbott’s sudden “outburst” was “sad”.

It comes after Deputy Liberal Leader Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne also rejected the claim by Mr Abbott that the Turnbull government was “drifting towards defeat.’’

Speaking in London where she was meeting UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Australia’s Foreign Minister said she had not seen the details of Mr Abbott’s “so-called manifesto’’ in which he spells out what he says the Coalition needs to do to reverse its poor form in the polls.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who rejected Tony Abbott’s claims while on a visit to see Boris Johnson today in London. Picture: GettySource:Getty Images

Mr Abbott, who was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister in September 2015, says the PM needs to adopt new policies, including freezing the renewable energy target and cutting

immigration rates, if it wants to win the next election.

He spelled out his manifesto in News Corp newspapers and on Sky News in the past 24 hours.

And she rejected Tony Abbott’s claims that the Coalition was drifting towards defeat. Picture: Hollie Adams/The AustralianSource:News Corp Australia

“Ideas are always welcome. A former leader of the party would have ideas and most certainly we encourage backbenchers as well as our ministers to always come up with policy initiatives that benefit the Australian people,’’ Ms Bishop said.

Asked if the Government was indeed “drifting towards defeat’’, Ms Bishop replied: “I don’t accept that characterisation at all. I think the Turnbull Government has been pursuing policies that are in the interest of the Australian people.

“We have passed a lot of legislation, probably more legislation in the last 12 months than we passed previously and it’s directed towards growing our economy and providing economic security as well.’’

Asked if Mr Abbott was doing to the Liberals what Kevin Rudd had done to Labor after he was

ousted, and undermining the prime minister, Ms Bishop replied: “Others might interpret it that way but I certainly don’t. Malcolm Turnbull enjoys the support of the party room.’’

Ms Bishop said it could be interpreted that Abbott was trying to undermine his leader. Picture: AAP/Mick TsikasSource:AAP

Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has branded Tony Abbott’s suggestion the federal government curtail immigration as “catastrophic”.

Mr Pyne noted the former prime minister was now a backbencher, although he was free to state his views.

“The worst thing we could do is get distracted,” he told Nine Network on Friday.

His plan for a coalition victory includes scaling back immigration to help take the pressure off house prices, scrapping the Human Rights Commission, ending subsidies for renewable energy and stopping all new spending. Mr Pyne rejected some of those suggestions.

“We won’t be going down the track of putting a freeze on immigration, for example, which Tony wants to do because it would be catastrophic,” he said.

“We won’t be slashing spending - Tony Abbott tried that in the 2014 budget during his leadership but of course a whole lot of zombie legislation sat in the Senate unable to be passed.” Mr Pyne said the government was getting on with the job and Australians were “pretty happy” with Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership.

One of the last polls taken when Mr Abbott was still prime minister pegged his preferred leader rating at 30 per cent against Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s 48 per cent.

“So we are on the right track with Malcolm Turnbull and with the government’s policies,” Mr Pyne said.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said the government was a shambles and suffering from a policy vacuum.

“The government doesn’t have an agenda,” he told Nine.

“Tony Abbott’s solution is to say ‘take what I did in the 2014 budget and go more extreme, go harder’.

“Tony Abbott is delusional and the government is dysfunctional,” he said.