The Liberals must sort out their grievances privately rather than airing out their dirty laundry through the media, a former minister has warned.
Former Liberal minister and moderate Christopher Pyne said embattled Opposition Leader Sussan Ley was doing a "perfectly good job" and urged colleagues to give her a chance to properly lead.
If they want to hold the government to account and be re-elected, Mr Pyne said Liberals must stop speaking publicly about their internal dispute as "disunity is death".
"My former colleagues probably need to stay off the television and the radio unless they want to talk about the Labor Party," Mr Pyne told the National Press Club on Wednesday.
"Their job is to oppose the government, and to point out its deficiencies, praise them when they're right, criticise them when they're wrong."
Earlier, Ms Ley rubbished rumours she could be rolled by conservative MP Angus Taylor in a leadership challenge within weeks, saying she continued to discuss policies with him.
"These are ridiculous speculations and they're made by people in the media," she told ABC TV on Wednesday morning
"They are not the conversations that I'm having with colleagues and they're not the focus of my team."
Mr Pyne understood the pain of his colleagues after they endured a landslide election loss, but told them to keep their feelings private.
"They just suffered the biggest defeat since 1943, so let's cut them some slack," Mr Pyne said.
"But the best method to deal with this trauma is to keep it internally, inside the party and talk about it amongst your colleagues."
Several Liberal MPs have speculated there may be a challenge to the party's first female opposition leader as early as the coming week, though Mr Taylor may not have the numbers to carry a spill motion.
Liberal MP Andrew Hastie dropped out of the race after a meeting between Ms Ley's rivals, paving the way for Mr Taylor to contest the top job.
But moderate senator Jane Hume said no challenge had been laid down.
"I can understand how frustrating this must be for Liberal supporters, but what I will tell you is that our job up here right now is to hold the Labor government to account," she told Sky News.
A number of polls have shown a surge in One Nation support, including one from Redbridge Group/Accent Research published on Sunday, showing the primary vote for the party had jumped to 26 per cent, well above the former coalition's 19 per cent primary vote.
Mr Pyne believes the coalition will get back together and course correct before the 2028 election.
"People use polls to express their displeasure or pleasure and that's why straight after elections, the prime minister usually gets a bounce in the polls," he said.
