'I trust my colleagues': Abbott says he will still be prime minister next week

Tony Abbott says he is "very confident" he will still be prime minister next week and that he has the unanimous support of his most senior ministers.

Mr Abbott was at Australian Federal Police headquarters in Melbourne today announcing new metadata legislation but was unable to avoid questions over his leadership of the Liberal party.

Talk of a leadership spill has been heightened by former assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos, who said last night his support for the prime minister is no longer unconditional.

Mr Abbott maintained he believed he would remain in the top job.

"I know my colleagues, I trust my colleagues, I respect my colleagues," he said.

"I know my colleagues all got elected to end the chaos and they are as determined as I am to make sure that that's exactly what we do.

“I have the full and unanimous support of the cabinet.”

He said he respected Mr Sinodinos and would stand by the respected Senator, a senior party figure.

“I stand by all my colleagues because that’s what a leader does,” he said.

“We weren’t elected to focus on ourselves, we were elected to focus on the Australian people.”

Mr Abbott would not initially confirm whether chief of staff Peta Credlin was still a part of his team, instead referring to policy issues he raised at Monday’s speech to the National Press Club.

When pushed further, Mr Abbott responded with only a brief “yes, yes” and moved on.

Ms Credlin has taken some of the blame for Mr Abbott’s widely-criticised decision to award Prince Philip a knighthood, although the prime minister said she was not aware of the plan ahead of time.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, a previous supporter of Mr Abbott’s, took to Twitter after the announcement to call for Ms Credlin’s resignation.

With AAP.