The prime minister has been under fire for going over the top of the party's NSW executive to install his own candidates, but Scott Morrison says his actions were to protect female MPs whose preselections were at risk.
"I'm asked all the time, 'Why won't the prime minister do more about getting good women in parliament and stand up for the women in parliament?' So I stood up for the women in my team," he said.
"The prime minister was standing up to things happening in the party to make sure that quality people, who are doing a quality job in their seats, should be able to go forward to the next election."
Of the three sitting MPs he intervened to say, one was a woman - Environment Minister Sussan Ley - while Mr Morrison's ally Immigration Minister Alex Hawke and backbencher Trent Zimmerman were also saved.
His picks were upheld on Tuesday after the NSW Court of Appeal dismissed a legal challenge to the selection of Liberal candidates in the three NSW seats.
Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who has been relegated to an unwinnable spot on the party's NSW Senate line-up, rejected his response that he was protecting women.
In a statement to the ABC's 7.30 program, she said: "Morrison is simply using the 'gender card' to conflate captain's picks to trash democratic processes in NSW.
"I do not accept criticism from a person who lacks a moral compass."
Senator Fierravanti-Wells last week spoke under parliamentary privilege to condemn Mr Morrison as "not fit to be prime minister" and branding him "ruthless".
Mr Frydenberg admitted the situation was troublesome but noted half of the prime minister's picks across NSW were women.
"It has been less than ideal, but I'm glad that it's heading to its conclusion and that we've secured new candidates for these seats," he told the ABC.
"But I don't want you just to focus on the Liberal Party. The Labor Party was in a High Court just a week ago having their own federal Labor takeover of the Victorian division challenge."
But speaking on his own portfolio, the treasurer attacked his shadow Jim Chalmers for being the architect of higher taxes, testing his new slogan across breakfast television following Mr Chalmers' National Press Club address.
"What we saw from Jim Chalmers yesterday was not an economic plan. It was simply a rant," Mr Frydenberg told Sky News.
"Don't look at what Jim Chalmers says, look at what Jim Chalmers does. The fact is he has helped the Labor Party come up with more than $80 billion of new spending during the pandemic alone."
Mr Chalmers on Tuesday reiterated that Labor had no plan to raise taxes other than ensuring multinationals pay their fair share of tax to pay for election commitments.
He also promised not to overturn already-legislated income tax cuts due to start in 2024.
It comes amid multiple disastrous polls for the coalition as the prime minister struggles with public perceptions of his own character.
A Roy Morgan poll - conducted in the past week after an onslaught of criticism of Mr Morrison from people within his own party - shows the ALP extending its lead to 57-43 in two-party preferred terms.
But Mr Morrison brushed off the polls, telling 7.30 on Tuesday, "elections are always tight".
"It's a tough job, and it's been a tough time, and people have had a tough time of it over the last three-and-a-half years," he said.
"As prime minister, you've got to take all the slings and arrows - and I do - but I never lose my focus on the job."
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