Anthony Albanese's hold on his party room is weakening, with Labor MPs fed up with self-inflicted wounds and an economy that keeps handing voters bad news.

News24 reported that at Monday's caucus meeting the Prime Minister assured colleagues they would be "kicking with the wind in the fourth quarter", the same footy line he trotted out before the 2022 and 2025 elections. He reportedly told MPs to keep their minds on employment and the economy.

It is an odd plea, given the economy is exactly where his government is bleeding, with interest rates sitting at a 15-year peak after the Reserve Bank's September hike.

Voters have noticed. A Resolve poll on 11 October found 46 per cent blame federal Labor for the cost of living, while 26 per cent point to global factors. Newspoll, released the same day, had 60 per cent dissatisfied with Mr Albanese and 36 per cent satisfied. A RedBridge poll on 4 October put his net favourability at minus 27, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers on minus 23.

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Even the ABC has been forced to concede Albanese is performing poorly, with its analysis finding more Labor figures now speaking bluntly behind closed doors. Chalmers is copping much of the blame, and some fear the government has run out of "agenda" with half the term still to go. If the polls are right, many backbenchers in Labor's 94-seat majority would be gone after one term.

The surcharge saga is a textbook own goal. After the tax office moved to stop taking credit card payments, Mr Albanese used a Tuesday night dinner in Canberra to credit the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's lobbying for his intervention. Next morning, as News24 columnist Gerard Henderson pointed out, Chalmers gave ABC radio listeners a different account, saying he and the Prime Minister had spoken the previous Wednesday before he and Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino put a plan before ministers that Friday. Mr Albanese then told Parliament the premise of a rift was "completely wrong". The fix is still only temporary.

Business is not buying the excuses either. Thirty business groups, the Business Council of Australia and the National Farmers' Federation among them, have complained to Chalmers in a letter that poor consultation is "endemic across portfolios and topics". Industry was given 12 business days apiece to respond to the draft trust tax and capital gains bills.

Albanese says he is "not spooked". Plenty on his backbench look far less relaxed, with some already fearing they will be out of parliament after the next election.

Chalmers will hand down the mid-year budget update in December, and the Reserve Bank meets again in early November. Inside Labor, a frontbench reshuffle is now widely seen as inevitable.