It appears that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's support has dried up and Australia will have its seventh prime minister of this young century by the weekend.

This comes after Mathias Cormann, Mitch Fifield, and Michaelia Cash withdrew their support for Mr. Turnbull and asked for a party room meeting to resolve the leadership crisis.  The PM says he'll do it "as soon as I get that letter" signed by a majority of Liberals calling for the meeting.

"In terms of my own intentions, when the party room meeting is called, I will invite a spill motion to be moved.  If the motion is carried, I will treat that as a vote of no confidence and I will not stand as a candidate in the ballot," he said, hinting that he would leave Parliament when it's all over.  "I made it very clear that I believe former prime ministers are best out of the Parliament."

Ex-Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton believes he has the support to take over the leadership of the Liberals and become Prime Minister.  But a full day before the party room meeting could give Treasurer Scott Morrison enough time to get his support together to challenge Dutton.

PM Turnbull also wants the solicitor-general's advice on whether Dutton is even eligible to sit in Parliament. 

"This issue of eligibility is critically important," said Turnbull, "You can imagine the consequences of having a prime minister whose actions and decisions are questionable because of the issue of eligibility."

That issue came up because Fairfax Media revealed the childcare company operated by Mr. Dutton's family trust had received more than $5.6 Million in Commonwealth funding since 2014 - that's a possible conflict of interest in breach of Section 44 of the constitution.