National cabinet should widen focus: poll

Australians want the now-permanent national cabinet to tackle drought and climate change as top priorities along with its laser focus on jobs.

Polling of 1000 people for new think tank Blueprint Institute that asked them to rank priorities for the national cabinet found almost three in five wanted it to tackle environmental problems.

Slightly fewer, 57 per cent, want to see improving the health system high on the agenda while 55 per cent said creating jobs in the short term was important.

The national cabinet - comprising Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders - was formed in March as a rapid response body to deal with the coronavirus and economic crisis.

On Friday, Mr Morrison said it would continue permanently and replace the Council of Australian Governments which had become too bogged down in paperwork and bureaucracy.

He declared the new body would have a "laser-like mission focus" on job creation.

Blueprint Institute founder Harry Guinness said the national cabinet had shown over the past couple of months it had the potential to deal with some of the nations' most intractable challenges.

"The Australian public have seen how effective the national cabinet can be in solving cross-jurisdictional issues that require coordinated national action between state and federal governments," he said on Wednesday.

"They believe, as do we, that the national cabinet would be remiss to ignore the opportunity to undertake an ambitious reform agenda."

The institute is backed by moderate Liberals including former MPs Christopher Pyne and Bruce Baird, who are are on its strategic council, as well as Julie Bishop.