Senior minister Malcolm Turnbull says the cabinet system is working well in the Abbott government. Source: AAP
SENIOR Liberal minister Malcolm Turnbull says he has no complaints with the cabinet process under Prime Minister Tony Abbott, saying it is "very familiar" to the way things were run in the Howard government.
A stream of coalition MPs and senators have complained about the tight grip the prime minister's office has on government, with one, Senator Ian Macdonald, accusing it of "obsessive centralised control paranoia".
But asked if he was satisfied with the cabinet process in the new government, Mr Turnbull said: "Yes, I've got no complaints at all".
"Tony is a very consultative prime minister - it's totally different to the regime under Rudd and Gillard, where all the decisions were taken in the prime minister's office," the communications minister told Sky News on Sunday.
"We meet pretty much every week, and we have very good discussions.
"I think the cabinet system is working well."
The cabinet process was "very familiar" to that under former prime minister John Howard, Mr Turnbull said.
"Almost all of us in the cabinet were ministers in the Howard government - I think about half of us were actually cabinet ministers," he said.
"So we've all got plenty of experience of how cabinet government should work."
