The communication lines were very inefficient in Howard government. Mr Hockey said that he rang Mr Howard to urge him to quit, saying voters had stopped listening to him.  "I said: 'They don't think you're going to be around in the future and therefore when you talk about the future they stop listening'," Mr Hockey said.  "I was disappointed, very disappointed that the prime minister had always said that he would stay only so long as it was in the best interest of the Liberal Party and whilst his colleagues wanted him and the formula changed and he changed the formula." But "knifing" Mr Howard would have backfired on the Liberals, Mr Hockey said. "Our core voters would've gone and voted for Labor, outraged at the way that we had treated Australia's most successful prime minister," he said.