BREAKING: Abbott leadership vote on Tuesday
UPDATED: Tony Abbott faces a leadership showdown next week after a Liberal MP confirmed he would bring on a spill in the party room.
West Australian Liberal MP Luke Simpkins emailed colleagues on Friday saying he had submitted a motion to the chief government whip Philip Ruddock to spill the party’s leadership positions, which will also include the deputy role held by Julie Bishop.
The motion will be seconded by fellow WA Liberal Don Randall.
Ruddock said the prime minister had indicated the motion would be listed for discussion on Tuesday.
Simpkins said the prime minister’s knighthood for Prince Philip on Australia Day “was for many the final proof of a disconnection with the people”.
“I think that we must bring this to a head and test the support of the leadership in the party room,” he wrote.
The MP did not mention who he would support in the secret ballot, but told colleagues the spill would give them “an opportunity to either endorse the prime minister or to seek a new direction”.
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The motion followed two weeks of internal turmoil in the Liberal Party sparked by the controversial Australian Day honour.
WA Liberal Dennis Jensen emerged on Tuesday to state he no longer had confidence in the prime minister and wanted to see a spill go ahead but did not want to be the one to pull the trigger.
Earlier on Friday, Victorian Liberal MP Sharman Stone said the issue needed to be resolved next week.
“If Tony gets through this, we’ve got to get behind Tony,” she said.
“If someone else does, that’s our leader and we get behind that person and we diminish the prospect of having Labor back in because that would be totally catastrophic.”
Stone said her colleagues should consider the impact of ongoing instability on the March 28 NSW state election.
Speaking to reporters in Melbourne, Abbott said now was a time for “confidence in our economy and confidence in our future”.
Former leader Malcolm Turnbull is considered the frontrunner to replace Abbott but has not declared his hand.
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Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said the party had to support the prime minister to avoid the chaos of the previous Labor government.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the Liberal Party was a circus.
“I think Australians see Canberra under the Liberals and they see a fiasco,” he said.
LUKE SIMPKINS’ EMAIL TO HIS LIBERAL COLLEAGUES:
In the last two weeks I have been inundated with emails and walk-ins to my electorate office all questioning the direction the government is being led in. The knighthood issue was for many the final proof of disconnection with the people.
These contacts have come from many people that I personally know and are firm supporters – in some cases they are booth workers as well. The last time this outpouring of concern happened was when we were being led to support the Rudd government’s ETS, and faced with this erosion of our base support we acted.
I think that we must bring this to a head, and test the support of the leadership in the party room.
I have therefore submitted to the Chief Government Whip a motion to spill the leadership positions of the federal parliamentary Liberal Party. The spill motion should be considered via a secret ballot as the first item of business in our partyroom meeting. The motion was seconded by Don Randall who shares the same views as myself.
I look forward to your support in this matter. It gives you all an opportunity to either endorse the prime minister or to seek a new direction.
As I have said in the past, I have no frontbench ambitions. I just want to make sure that the economic vandals 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.
– AAP
This article was first published as “Libs seek vote to end leadership row”.
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