SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s embattled prime minister, Tony Abbott, said Friday that he would fight an attempt to contest his leadership next week, after a junior politician from his conservative Liberal Party called for the vote.
“We are not the Labor Party, and we are not going to repeat the chaos and the instability of the Labor years,” Mr. Abbott said at a news conference in Sydney on Friday, referring to the party his conservative coalition ousted in September 2013, whose time in power was marked by leadership changes and bitter infighting.
Earlier Friday, Luke Simpkins, a member of Parliament, emailed fellow Liberal Party members to announce that he would present a motion against the prime minister at a party meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Canberra, the capital. The Australian news media reported that Mr. Simpkins had first called Mr. Abbott to warn him of his intentions.
Mr. Abbott has been under intense pressure since his government failed to pass large parts of its budget last year, and this week he was forced to abandon significant policies seen as too costly and unpopular. The conservatives also suffered a startling setback in a state election in Queensland last weekend.
Criticism of Mr. Abbott escalated after he announced on Australia Day, Jan. 26, that he had recommended Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for an Australian knighthood, a move that was widely derided and led some in his own party to conclude he was out of touch with voters.
Speculation has centered on Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull as the most likely candidate to replace Mr. Abbott should he lose the vote.
At the news conference Friday, Mr. Abbott said he had asked the party’s deputy leader, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who had also been mentioned as a possible leader, to stand with him on a ballot, in a deft move that removes her as a challenger. Mr. Abbott said that he and Ms. Bishop would “stand together” to urge the party’s lawmakers “to vote in favor of the stability and the team that the people voted for at the election.”
The lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on a motion to declare the positions of party leader and deputy leader vacant, known in Australian politics as a leadership spill. If the motion passes, the party then asks for nominations for the top positions.
Geoff Robinson, a lecturer in history and politics at Deakin University in Victoria State, said Mr. Abbott could survive the vote. “There may be time for Mr. Abbott to retrieve his fortune,” Professor Robinson said, adding that other potential leaders may not yet have had time to canvass colleagues to build sufficient support.
The infighting recalled the turbulence of the Labor years, which Mr. Abbott scathingly criticized as the opposition leader. Labor replaced its own leader twice, removing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his first term and replacing him with Julia Gillard before returning to Mr. Rudd shortly before the 2013 election. The moves were seen as crippling to Labor’s chances of staying in power.
- http://www.searchmap.eu/blog/tony-abbott-australian-premier-vows-to-fight-leadership-challenge/
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