The campaign to install a new prime minister "is dying", with polls showing a "significant turnaround" for the Abbott government, according to a senior cabinet minister.
Dissidents' hopes for a second spill motion against Tony Abbott as early as Tuesday faded on Monday after the latest Fairfax-Ipsos poll confirmed a turnaround in the government's standing just three weeks after the Prime Minister survived an attempt to remove him as leader.
The Coalition's primary vote has risen to 42 per cent and the government is now within striking distance of Labor, which leads 51-49 per cent on a two-party preferred basis. It is the closest the Coalition has come to being competitive since October 2014.
Speaking from Vancouver, Canada, Trade Minister Andrew Robb took aim at the "elusive bank of unnamed colleagues" waging a campaign for change through "spurious leaks" to the media.
"It [the campaign to oust Mr Abbott] is dying because the voters have spoken, we're seeing very strong movement back," Mr Robb told the ABC.
"I think these elusive unnamed colleagues have got a clear responsibility to the rest of the team and to the country to pull their heads in."
 
Mr Robb confirmed Mr Abbott had been given "several months" to show he was capable of changing his behaviour as party leader and Prime Minister and criticised those pushing for a new spill motion just three weeks after an earlier attempt.
"There was a very clear intent to give some clear air to the Prime Minister, not two weeks but several months," he said.
The party elder said the polls were "conclusive proof" voters also wanted Mr Abbott to remain in the job and said he had not detected any change in the party room to suggest an alternative leader like Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has the numbers.
In a telling result, just 21 per cent of voters believe Mr Abbott enjoys the confidence of his party - a 32 per cent plunge in a year. Half of all voters believe Mr Turnbull has the support of his colleagues.
Mr Turnbull is preferred as prime minister 39-19 compared to Mr Abbott, according to the Fairfax-Ipsos survey of 1400 people.
 
Finance Minister and key Abbott loyalist Mathias Cormann, who helped topple Mr Turnbull as leader in 2009, praised the Communications Minister as an "outstanding senior minister."
"I'm very confident he'll continue to make an outstanding contribution over the second term of our period in government," he told the ABC.
