Former PM Tony Abbott makes fresh bid for return to cabinet

Tony Abbott doesn't expect to become prime minister again but he does believe he can work in Malcolm Turnbull's cabinet, even if they haven't always seen eye to eye.

"You don't have to idolise someone to be able to work with them," Mr Abbott told Sky News today, although conceded it is the prime minister's call who he has in his cabinet.

He said former Liberal leader John Howard and his treasurer Peter Costello often had difficult moments "but worked effectively together".

But Mr Abbott did offer plenty of advice to Mr Turnbull and the Liberal Party during an hour-long, wide-ranging interview.

He expects Mr Turnbull to lead the coalition into the next election because Australians don't want to see a revolving door of prime ministers.

But he did warn the government not to overreact to the Pauline Hanson factor or be governed by opinion polls.

He says Mr Turnbull must lead a strong centre-right party or fringe parties will come to the fore.

"What the government needs to do is not to overreact to Hanson but to get on with the job of being a strong and sensible centre-right government," Mr Abbott said.

"This is exactly what John Howard did after the 1998 election when One Nation got a very strong vote."

He also stressed the government must not get obsessed by opinion polls, an issue that triggered Mr Turnbull's successful challenge for the prime ministership last year,

Mr Abbott pointed to the failure of polls to predict the UK election last year, and Brexit and the US election this year as a reason not to put faith in them.

"If you were good government, polls would look after themselves," he said.

He was also pleased the government was no longer talking about 'innovation and agility'.

"That frankly loses people, we have got to talk about the issues that they understand," Mr Abbott said.

"We have got to put it in terms of their interests."

But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said innovation and agility was a very important part of the government's economic plan.

"Obviously, for an open trading economy like Australia it is critically important that we're agile and innovative and always able to be as competitive as we possibly can be internationally," he told ABC television.