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Former prime minister Tony Abbott has blasted the Coalition split, describing the move as a “recipe for permanent opposition”, urging the two parties to reconcile their differences as soon as possible.

“It’s deeply regrettable because the history shows that the Coalition wins together and loses separately. It’s very important that there is a strong and clear alternative to a deeply underwhelming government,” Abbott told Ben Fordham on 2GB today.

“If the Libs and the Nats go their separate ways, we won’t have one strong opposition, we’ll have two opposition parties that are fighting each other as much as they’re fighting a bad government. That’s a recipe for permanent opposition and that’s a recipe for permanent poor government in our country.”

He also referenced former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke’s landslide victories following the Coalition split in the 1980s.

“Albo will just recycle Bob Hawke’s refrain, and most people will just nod their heads because that’s right, if you can’t agree among yourselves, how can you provide a coherent policy, a coherent and strong alternative policy for our country?” Abbott said.

“Let’s get over the electoral PTSD and let’s get back together again as quickly as possible … Let’s not shoot yourself in the foot by walking away from your political family.”

The former Liberal leader did not want to place blame on any leader or party.

“Why blow it all up just because we’ve suffered a disastrous loss? Work out what went wrong, sure, but it wasn’t the Coalition that was at fault here, it was the fact that we did not adequately prosecute our good policy, and we didn’t adequately create a contest with the Labor Party,” Abbott said.

“People did not vote against the fact that the Libs and the Nats are together, they voted against the fact that we were not a sufficiently clear alternative to the Labor Party.”