Two Western Australian Liberal members of parliament, Luke Simpkins and Don Randall, have announced they will move a motion to vacate the Liberal Party’s leadership, while Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he and deputy Julie Bishop would urge the party room to defeat the motion.
The motion has been listed for debate at the Liberals’ partyroom meeting on Tuesday.
If such a motion is carried, both the leadership and deputy leadership would become vacated, and the party would then take a vote on the leadership team.
Mr Simpkins, who represents the federal Electorate of Cowan, reportedly said the knighthood issue was an example of the prime minister’s failure to connect with the public.
In a letter to his colleagues, he said he had submitted a motion for a leadership spill to the chief government whip, former Howard government minister Philip Ruddock.
The challenge to Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership in 2009 also emerged from disaffected WA MPs, with Dennis Jensen and Wilson Tuckey moving the motion.
The prime minister said in a press conference that the motion was to vacate both his position and the position of the deputy.
“The first point to make is that they are perfectly entitled to call for this, but the next point to make is that they are asking the party room to vote out the people that the electorate voted in, in September 2013,” Mr Abbott said.
“I want to make this very simple point.
“We are not the Labor Party.
“We are not the Labor Party and we are not going to repeat the chaos and the instability of the Labor years, 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 stability and the team that the people voted for at the election.
“We have a strong plan.
“It’s the strong plan that I enunciated at the Press Club this week and we are determined to get on with it, and we will.”
The government's leader in the Senate, Eric Abetz, said on radio today that he would support the existing leadership team.
"We need stability to continue on with the task the Australian people gave us," he said.
Senator Abetz said the cabinet was unanimous behind Tony Abbott.
It is yet to be determined if the motion will be taken by a secret ballot or show of hands, which could impact the ultimate outcome of the vote.
It is understood the prime minister, who chairs party room meetings, is given discretion on how a vote would take place.
Potential challenger Malcolm Turnbull has not declared a position since the spill was announced, while Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce reportedly said his party's coalition agreement with the Liberals was not unconditional, and could be broken up if the Liberal Party were to change leaders.
