Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has avoided explaining why Tony Abbott has been left out of his new cabinet.

Mr Turnbull joined Chris Kenny in his first 2GB appearance in several months, claiming he’s assembled an “outstanding cabinet”.

“There’s a lot of talent in the party room and not all of it can be in the Ministry. Everybody’s got people they think should be in the Ministry.

“It’s about the government getting the right team that will work together and I’m not going to get into a debate about a particular individual.”

Asked whether he regrets referencing Newspoll when he knifed Tony Abbott, Mr Turnbull started getting defensive.

“When I challenged Tony I gave a speech and I talked about a number of things… I did refer to the fact the government had lost 30 Newspolls in a row.

“We’ve been speaking now for 12 minutes and you haven’t got off personality and politics onto policy and when I tried to get started on it you cut me off.

“You’re interested in Tony Abbott and me and the personalities. Maybe some of your listeners are. But what I want to talk about is the job we have done governing Australia.”

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