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Joe Hockey (L) is close to making a decision as other Liberals conspire to oust Malcolm Turnbull. (AAP: David Crosling)
Malcolm Turnbull says he has the "full support" of Joe Hockey as pressure mounts on the high-profile frontbencher to announce whether he will contest the Liberal leadership.
It is understood Mr Hockey is close to making a decision as a group of Liberal MPs works on securing the numbers to oust Mr Turnbull as leader and stifle passage of the Government's emissions trading scheme.
Mr Hockey has previously said he would not challenge Mr Turnbull and has backed his leader's stance on climate change.
He has even sought advice from former prime minister John Howard over what direction he should take.
But Mr Turnbull this morning lashed out at his critics, in particular Tony Abbott, whom he will likely face in a leadership ballot on Tuesday, and Senate leader Nick Minchin.
"They are destroying the Liberal Party," Mr Turnbull told Channel Nine. "There is a recklessness and a wilfulness in these men, which is going to destroy the Liberal Party."
Mr Turnbull says he is confident of retaining the leadership despite many Liberals touting Mr Hockey as a unifying candidate who could bring together the warring conservatives and moderates.
"If Joe was the cuddly, friendly face of the Liberal Party but spouting Nick Minchin's lines, that would destroy him and destroy the party," Mr Turnbull said.
"He knows that. He's got too much character to be suckered into that.
"I will win on Tuesday. I am unbowed.
"Joe Hockey has told me as recently as last night that I have his complete support.
"I am not interested in becoming a mouthpiece or a patsy or a tool for people whose views are completely wrong and are contrary to the best interests of our nation, our planet and indeed the Liberal Party.
"If this issue is not resolved, the climate change war that Nick Minchin and his wreckers have started will continue to destroy the Liberal Party until such time as we are destroyed by Kevin Rudd in an election."
While Mr Turnbull is confident of defeating Mr Abbott in a leadership vote, one of his supporters concedes a contest against Mr Hockey would be a different story.
A poll of 400 voters published in the Sunday Telegraph has Mr Turnbull and Mr Hockey equally preferred by all voters on 29 points, with Mr Abbott trailing on 22.
Among Coalition voters, Mr Hockey has a clear lead with 39 per cent support, with Mr Abbott and Mr Turnbull on 26 and 25 respectively.
Meanwhile, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has rejected the argument from some Liberals that Mr Hockey could be leader if he reversed his support for an ETS.
"No one could present themselves to the Australian people as a serious person if that was the argument they were going to run," Ms Gillard todl the ABC's Insiders program.
"Mr Hockey's made his decision. He's made his decision alongside Malcolm Turnbull and the others in the Liberal party, and that decision is for the carbon pollution reduction scheme as amended by the amendments that [Ian] Macfarlane sought."
'He didn't listen'
Former Howard government minister Kevin Andrews has also not ruled out being a candidate in a new leadership ballot.
Mr Andrews, who put his name forward in a party vote last week, has told Channel Ten that Liberal senators will meet tomorrow morning to decide their tactics.
He says he hopes they stall the emissions trading scheme vote until after the leadership challenge.
"We should delay it, and if that means talking it out, that means talking it out... whatever we need to do represent the overwhelming view of people who are talking to us and who have been polled," he said.
Tasmanian Senator Stephen Parry says Mr Turnbull's refusal to delay the vote on the emissions trading scheme will cost him the leadership.
Senator Parry predicts the next Liberal leader will delay the scheme until after the Copenhagen climate conference.
"Malcolm had the potential to be a great leader of our party and Malcolm didn't listen to the party room, and I'm very sad about that," he said.
"But the reality is that we need a leader who will listen to the majority of the party room and take those views and model our policy position on the views of the party room."
Senator Eric Abetz, who quit Mr Turnbull's frontbench in protest at his support for the amended ETS, has told Sky news that whoever wins on Tuesday will have to agree to delaying the scheme.
"I believe that any leader of the Liberal Party, whether it remains as Malcolm Turnbull or any body else, will need to see the will of the party room and accede to it and agree to deferring this issue until after Copenhagen," he said.
