The Abbott Slide

"Government is not a popularity contest, it's a competence contest."

As he slides deeper into political quicksand, Tony Abbott has valiantly attempted to recast his lack of voter support as a positive. Like being a good parent, Abbott suggests the challenge is not to be liked but to do the right thing.

There are a couple of problems with Abbott's self-defensive attempt at reframing government as a competence game.

First, well, it pretty much is a popularity contest. "Show biz for ugly people," the saying goes. And while it's true a successful politician doesn't need to be liked by punters in a BFF sense, a politician can't get very far without finding a way to win popular support. Because democracy.

But Abbott's deadlier problem is that as well as being unpopular, he's also losing the competence contest. This week's Essential Report reveals a sharp fall in the perception that Abbott is a capable leader.

In the last two months, including the summer break when he was out of sight for a while, Abbott's rating as a capable leader has fallen nine points.

Abbott's appeal to competence is an attempt to differentiate from Labor's most recent term in office, dogged as it was by leadership turmoil and resulting chaos. But as we saw in the weekend's shock results from Queensland, it appears voters aren't saddling the current crop of leaders with the baggage of Labor's immediate past.

Federal Labor Leader Bill Shorten comes out significantly ahead of Abbott on key indicators.

A 47 per cent rating as "a capable leader" doesn't set the world on fire but it's a full 13 points ahead of Abbott. And the Opposition Leader ranks nearly 30 points lower than the Prime Minister on the key negative indicators of "erratic" and "out of touch".

Abbott is also stacking up poorly against potential leaders on his own side. With Malcolm Turnbull equal favourite along with "don't know", and Julie Bishop close behind, Tony Abbott comes in slightly behind "someone else" with 11 per cent support.

This afternoon - two hours after the Cabinet meeting began - Ms Bishop's office released these quotes:

"I am not campaigning for the job of prime minister, I am not ringing the backbench asking for support," the Foreign Minister told Cabinet.

"I am not counting any numbers, I will not challenge the leader."