Tony Abbott has fired a telling shot across Malcolm Turnbull's bow, warning that any energy package agreed to in cabinet must also pass a party room wary of anything approaching a clean energy target or other subsidy scheme for renewables.
It came as the Turnbull government received more bad news in the fortnightly Newspoll series, prompting Mr Abbott to declare a future return to the leadership was possible but would occur only if he was drafted by colleagues, which he described as "almost impossible to imagine".
Signalling that Coalition MPs will be no rubber stamp on energy, the dumped former prime minister said the backbench deserved "plenty of chance to digest" the formula.
Mr Abbott's blunt message sets the stage for another showdown over a policy area that has divided moderates and conservatives within the Coalition for a decade, and become a constant cipher for simmering leadership rivalries.
Just hours before the Turnbull cabinet was due to discuss the contentious energy affordability and reliability formula, itself a reframed clean energy policy due to internal frictions, Mr Abbott used a regular radio chat with 2GB host Ray Hadley to lay down some political markers.
Acknowledging the government was now just nine losing Newspoll surveys away from the 30-poll benchmark Mr Turnbull set as his trigger for challenging Mr Abbott in September 2015, Mr Abbott emphasised the importance of "getting the right policy".
"I don't think this is something that should be, as it were, rushed through, but nevertheless, it's got to be got right," he said.
"We have to get it right, and I hope that a lot of very serious thought has been given to this matter by [Energy] Minister Josh Frydenberg; he's a bloke I respect, he's very capable, he's very talented, and let's see what he comes up with."
Mr Abbott, who famously rose to the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2009 at Mr Turnbull's expense by championing a pivot away from Mr Turnbull's pro-emissions trading stance, dismissed any suggestion he would challenge, despite a growing sense that the government was headed towards defeat.
"This was the test the Prime Minister set for leaders; it's his test not mine," he said, while pointedly leaving one avenue open to his return.
"The only way an 'ex' could ever come back is by way of a draft and that's almost impossible to imagine," he said.
"That's a pretty rare and unusual business in politics."
Mr Abbott's own political hero, John Howard, was drafted back to the top position in the 1990s after an initially unsuccessful stint as opposition leader in the 1980s. Mr Howard went on to be prime minister for almost a dozen years.
Others have also made leadership returns after leaving or losing, including Kevin Rudd, Kim Beazley and, of course, Mr Turnbull himself.
Jeff Kennett and Colin Barnett returned to the party leadership to become Liberal premiers of Victoria and Western Australia respectively.
