Turnbull under fire from conservatives

Conservative MPs have questioned Malcolm Turnbull's mandate and will continue to press for changes to superannuation policy.

But the prime minister is resisting any immediate policy change as he puts the finishing touches to a ministry reshuffle due to be announced on Monday.

Counting in the final close seat of Herbert had the sitting coalition MP Ewen Jones 31 votes ahead of his Labor rival on Thursday afternoon.

A win would give the coalition 77 members in the lower house, down from 90 in the previous parliament.

Mr Turnbull is facing criticism over the election campaign.

Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz says he will ask questions at Monday's party room meeting about what went wrong and why issues like the carbon tax and union corruption were not prosecuted.

Senator Abetz warned the prime minister to listen to backbencher concerns over superannuation, following the coalition's "kick up the pants".

"Having just fallen over the line, I think it might be wise for the leadership team to listen to some of us backbenchers," he told ABC radio on Thursday.

Mr Turnbull says the government will present the superannuation policy to parliament in the same form as it took in the May budget.

Senator Abetz's call was supported by another Liberal senator Chris Back, who said the campaign had been damaged by the policy of a $500,000 cap on non-concessional contributions backdated to 2007.

"There were certainly people who said to me: `We will vote Liberal in the House of Representatives but we won't support you in the Senate'," Senator Back said.

Conservatives are pressing the prime minister to return Tony Abbott to the front bench.

Another former minister Kevin Andrews said "balance" was needed in the new ministry and the reappointment of Mr Abbott would help in this.

The coalition could only regain voters' trust by broadly representing a cross-section of views, he said.

Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash said voters had given the coalition a mandate to implement the policies taken to the election.

"I would expect they are the policies we will take to the parliament," she told reporters in Perth.

Asked whether more conservatives were needed in the ministry, Senator Cash said: "I'm very pleased that the cabinet that the prime minister took to the election did have a number of conservatives."

She rejected suggestions of a poor campaign.

"The Turnbull government received in excess of 800,000 more primary votes than Labor did ... we have a mandate, we won government, we have a majority and the people have voted for our policies."

Labor frontbencher Brendan O'Connor said coalition members were right to question what was the benefit of Mr Turnbull seizing the leadership from Mr Abbott in September.

"Malcolm Turnbull was supposed to deliver votes to the Liberal Party and he failed," Mr O'Connor said.