Senior Liberal MP Tim Wilson is really unhappy about having to work on Melbourne Cup day

Senior Liberal MP Tim Wilson has hit out at the prime minister for forcing parliament to sit on Melbourne Cup day, while at the same time making an unusual comment hinting at his own leadership ambitions.

In a tongue-in-cheek post on Facebook yesterday afternoon, Wilson called Anthony Albanese a "philestine" for scheduling a parliamentary sitting day on the first Tuesday of November.

"Our philistine prime minister is forcing parliament to sit on Tuesday, defying Melbourne's traditions and way of life," the member for Goldstein wrote.

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The House of Representatives has a grand total of 40 sitting days this year – far less than the long-term average of 67, in part because of the election in May.

While Melbourne Cup day is a public holiday in Victoria, it's a regular working day in the other seven states and territories.

Wilson said, though, that he would never have a sitting day clash if he were to become prime minister.

"I make this commitment: this will never happen under a Wilson government," he wrote.

The comment comes with Sussan Ley facing renewed speculation about her future as opposition leader.

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Hours before Wilson's comment, the Nationals agreed to dump any commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, raising the possibility of another split within the Coalition.

Ley, who has ordered a review of the Liberal Party's climate policy – which is yet to be finalised – in the wake of its crushing election defeat, said this morning that the junior Coalition partner was entitled to come up with its own emissions stance.

"I always said that the Nationals would come to their decision in their party room and the Liberals would similarly come to our decision in our party room," she said. 

"But our joint energy working group has done an incredibly sound job up until this point in time, it's continuing, and we can look forward to a Liberal Party energy position and then coming together as a Coalition."

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She added that she and Nationals leader David Littleproud had a "convivial" conversation yesterday following the decision to dump net zero.

Meanwhile, there are now reports of a number of senior Liberal figures – including some of Ley's backers – pushing for the party to follow its junior party's footsteps.

That comes after new Newspoll figures, published in The Australian last night, which showed the Coalition's primary vote has collapsed to a record low of 24 per cent, while Ley's own approval rating is at a disastrous minus 33 per cent.

Ley only became opposition leader in May following a narrow Liberal leadership contest win over Angus Taylor.

Wilson, who defeated independent Zoe Daniel at the election to claim back the Melbourne seat of Goldstein and re-enter parliament, had considered making a tilt at the Liberal leadership before withdrawing from the contest.

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