Seven ministers who voted for Tony Abbott in the failed spill motion are now prepared to help remove the Prime Minister if he cannot revive the government's fortunes and recover his position in the polls.
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The ministers have discussed the timing of any potential move on the Prime Minister, and favour waiting until June – after next month's NSW state election and the May budget.
Mr Abbott has attempted in the last fortnight to put the spill motion, which failed 61-39, behind him by shifting the government's focus to national security, childcare and the budget.
But he has been hit by a damaging series of leaks and, behind the scenes, discussions are now under way in the ministry about how much time the party should give him to turn the situation around.
A series of blunders by Mr Abbott have not helped his cause, with the axing of chief government whip Philip Ruddock, confusion over the tender for the next generation submarine and a suggestion Indonesia should "reciprocate" aid that flowed after the 2004 tsunami by sparing the lives of the two Australians on death row in Bali all contributing to another drop in support in the Liberal party room.
Fairfax Media spoke to 11 of the 35 Liberal MPs serving in cabinet, the outer ministry and as parliamentary secretaries on Monday.
Those discussions revealed that seven ministers, who agreed to speak to Fairfax on the basis that they not be named, are now "keeping a watching brief" on the leadership, with some volunteering they would not vote for the prime minister again in the event of another spill.
Those seven are in addition to the handful of ministers who voted against Mr Abbott and for a spill two weeks ago.
All seven either publicly or privately expressed support for Mr Abbott in the lead-up to the spill and some are still among Mr Abbott's vocal public supporters.
Privately, however, they now concede the government's woes have deepened and admit a collective view has formed that, ultimately, Mr Abbott will have to be removed to revive the government's fortunes.
None is advocating a move on Mr Abbott before the NSW state election, due next month, or before the May budget and instead are arguing to agitated backbenchers for the prime minister to be given more time.
Several ministers have now reached out to Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull to counsel caution and patience and to point out, as one minister put it, "if it's going to happen, it has to be overwhelming".
One minister said: "I don't think it is recoverable but I'm still of the view that he gets until the end of June unless there is a major stuff-up. I couldn't stick with him [Abbott] but we need to manage this."
"There's not overwhelming support yet for Malcolm [Turnbull] and it needs to be," the minister said.
A cabinet minister stressed his support for the prime minister and said he would not put a timeline on things but "if we come to a point where it is obvious that we can't make it and that things are deteriorating further - the last thing Australia needs is a return to Labor".
A third minister said the view of a core group of ministers "committed to keeping the Coalition in government" had hardened and a move on Mr Abbott would happen because "we don't want the farce of Labor".
A fourth said: "The time will have to come to make the change. It's unfair and unfortunate but at some stage we have to consider the best interests of the country and the party will be served by being able to prosecute a positive vision for the future."
A fifth minister said MPs were unhappy, they had not seen evidence of change and that "you would have thought the spill bought him a budget but it's not certain".
Two backbench MPs who supported the spill said that while the first challenge had come from backbenchers who were now largely silent, disquiet had now moved to the ministry.
"This has moved above my pay grade," one said.
