Pressure is building in the Liberal Party for another tilt at removing Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Both ministers and backbenchers have told the ABC they believe Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull now has the numbers to win a challenge and should use them.

Mr Abbott survived a move on his leadership earlier this month, when a motion to spill the position failed 39 votes to 61.

After that party room meeting, the Prime Minister declared that "good government starts today".

However, there is now open despair in Coalition ranks, even among those who supported the Prime Minister in the leadership spill.

Liberals talk of little else and worry that there will be permanent brand damage if Mr Abbott stays.

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Mr Hockey was a last-minute fill-in for Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who cancelled his speech on Wednesday due to touring cyclone-affected areas in northern Queensland.

The tour also meant that Mr Abbott, who several speakers at the event described as a "very good friend" to the Australian Jewish community, did not have a potentially awkward moment at the event with a potential rival for the top job, the local member for Wentworth, Malcolm Turnbull.

Editor of the AJN Zeddy Lawrence apologised to those attending for advertising that the book would be launched "in the presence of the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott" when it clearly wasn't.

However, he quipped that certain members of the Liberal party had suggested to him that the invitations "should have said in the presence of the next prime minister," referring to Mr Turnbull.

This suggestion was met with substantial laughter, and a few "hear, hears."

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