Senior frontbencher Mathias Cormann has called out Tony Abbott for pushing his alternative conservative agenda, marking a week of bitter in-fighting within the Liberal party.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten warned this "intolerable" row between Mr Abbott and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is doing Australia harm.
Senator Cormann, a leading conservative and Finance Minister, said Mr Abbott was advocating for things that weren't consistent with what he did when he was prime minister.
"If the proposition is the government now is supposedly more left wing than he would like, that would have applied equally to his government at the time," Senator Cormann told Sky News on Sunday.
"I don't think these are useful observations."
Mr Abbott made several media appearances and speeches last week leading into the first anniversary of last year's narrow federal election win, airing his alternative views on budget spending, immigration, education, climate change and national security.
Senator Cormann said there was nothing wrong with discussing policy but there were party room processes where people could air their views if they varied from what the government was putting forward.
"That is the way the process works," he said.
Mr Turnbull on Saturday took a swipe at Mr Abbott, who he rolled for the Liberal leadership in 2015.
He used an opinion piece in News Corp mastheads to outline his government's achievements since last year's election.
"They're not theories, or thought bubbles, or glib one-liners," he wrote in a column for News Corp.
Mr Shorten, in Brisbane where he attended a rally on penalty rates, likened the row between Mr Turnbull and Mr Abbott to the boxing bout between welterweight world champion Manny Pacquiao and Australian Jeff Horn.
"I think it is about time that the Liberal party started to put its house in order," Mr Shorten told reporters in Brisbane.
"This intolerable argument in the Liberal party is causing Australia harm."
He said there needed to be a meeting behind close doors to decide which one would go, adding he didn't mind which one it was.
"They need a government which is focused on the needs of everyday people, not just some argument between to silly older blokes who gets to sit in the prime minister's chair."
Mr Turnbull told News Corp he has no plans to retire but would leave parliament if he lost the prime ministership.
"I am not giving anyone else advice but I just think that's what I would do," he said.
