Photo: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sought to reassure backbench MPs nervous after the budget. (AAP: Alan Porritt)
Prime Minister Tony Abbott will face a nervous party room today, as the Coalition backbench gets its first chance to tell the Government how the budget is being received around the country.
Some MPs have told AM that voters have said they will never again vote for the Coalition, others that the jury is still out and the Government needs to do a better sales job.
Mr Abbott had a chance to gauge the mood when he hosted a private dinner for a large group of his MPs, mostly new ones, when they arrived in Canberra for the return of Parliament this week.
A Government source says it was not organised for them to air their angst, but that Mr Abbott and key ministers reassured them and informed them about the budget.
However, one Liberal MP says the meeting served to defuse their concerns and avoid specific criticisms of the budget being raised in the party-room meeting.
New Nationals MP for the rural seat of Mallee, Andrew Broad, said he does not discuss the party room, but thinks voters can be won over.
"It's a difficult sell, I will always use the great quote by Winston Churchill that 'a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get out of bed and put its pants on'," Mr Broad said.
The Australian population know that we couldn't continue on the way that it was going, that we did have a structural flaw in our spending pattern, things needed to change, they get it.
Member for Mallee Andrew Broad
Mr Broad said while people may be unhappy with some of the budget measures, they also understand the situation the Government faces.
"We get that the country essentially couldn't continue on the way that it was going and we appreciate that we've got a Government that's prepared to, you know, muscle up to the job at hand," he said.
"The Australian population know that we couldn't continue on the way that it was going, that we did have a structural flaw in our spending pattern, things needed to change, they get it.
"I think the population will stick with a government and walk through some difficult years, if they know there's light on the other side."
However, Mr Broad said the Government had not articulated the budget as well as it could have.
'Mixed messages' blunt Government budget campaign
Other MPs report some voters are vowing they will not back the Coalition again and another describes the mood as "black", worse now, he says, than just after budget night.
Liberal MP Dennis Jensen blames "mixed messages" - the budget's inclusion of big spending alongside spending cuts.
"I think the biggest problem is that, in effect, almost a lack of coherence and a clear narrative," he said.
And Dr Jensen says the Government allowed "scare stories" to gain a foothold, needlessly worrying pensioners.
"It becomes very difficult then to actually correct the record, because people tend to believe almost the first thing they hear, or something like that, and it takes a lot more effort to convince them that that is wrong, rather than giving that message in the first place.
