Government an alphabet of chaos: Burke

Toppling Tony Abbott from the prime ministership unleashed a Shakespearean tragedy that's only beginning to unfold, Labor's Tony Burke says.

As the Turnbull government prepares for the first parliamentary sitting of the year, Mr Burke says government instability isn't about to stop and you don't have to go "very far into the alphabet before you are talking about chaos".

"You start with the ones going more directly against (Malcolm) Turnbull's approach - Abbott, Abetz, Andrews - you then go to the ones with the gaffes and the scandal that turn up in the papers every day - Briggs, Brough, Bronwyn, Barnaby," Mr Burke told Sky News on Sunday.