BBC News
Australian PM Tony Abbott says he and his Liberal party deputy leader Julie Bishop will "stand together" against a leadership challenge from MPs.
Backbencher Luke Simpkins called the motion on Friday, saying it was "time to test the support of the leadership".
Mr Abbott has faced growing questions about his leadership in recent weeks.
He was widely ridiculed for giving a knighthood to Prince Phillip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, and blamed for a Liberal defeat in Queensland elections.
Ms Bishop, who is also foreign minister, has been seen as a potential leadership challenger.
But in a brief statement to the media on Friday, she said she agreed with Mr Abbott that "due to cabinet solidarity and my position as deputy there should be support for current leadership in spill motion".
'Disconnection'
In an email to Liberal MPs, Mr Simpkins said he was tabling a spill motion because he had been "inundated" with questions about "the direction the government is being led in".
"The knighthood issue was for many the final proof of a disconnection with the people," he said, adding that it was "time to test the support of the leadership in the party room".
Mr Simpkins said he had no leadership ambitions himself but wanted to ensure "that the economic vandals [of the Labor party] do not get back into power and our children and grandchildren are not left to pay Labor's bill".
"I do this because I believe it is in the best interests of the people of our country."
Liberal chief whip Philip Ruddock confirmed that the motion - which is being seconded by Don Randall - would be discussed at a party meeting on Tuesday.
MPs will first vote on whether to allow the spill to go ahead. If the motion passes a secret ballot for the leadership will then take place.
In a brief news conference on Friday, Mr Abbott said the MPs were entitled to put the motion forward, but that they were "asking the party room to vote out the people that the electorate voted in, in September 2013".
Analysis: Wendy Frew, Australian Editor
Mr Abbott's leadership had been criticised before but his decision on Australia Day to award a knighthood to Prince Philip was a game-changer.
Now, two backbenchers have come forward to lance what former Victorian Premier and Liberal heavyweight Jeff Kennett has likened to a festering boil of discontent with Mr Abbott.
The call for a party room spill on Tuesday by MPs Luke Simpkins and Don Randall has set the hares running. MPs are now furiously phoning each other to count the numbers for the pretenders.
Leadership spills have failed in the past, however, and Mr Abbott could still survive to see another day.
Mr Abbott said the Liberals were "not going to repeat the chaos and the instability" of Labor, which lost office after a series of leadership crises.
"So I have spoken to Deputy Leader Julie Bishop and we will stand together in urging the party room to defeat this particular motion and in so doing, and in defeating this motion, to vote in favour of the stability and the team that the people voted for at the election."
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said he would not stand for election, Australia's ABC News reported. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, another possible contender, has not yet commented.
A number of other cabinet ministers and MPs have said they will back Mr Abbott.
No comments:
Post a Comment