Tony Abbott Survives Liberal Party Leadership Spill

Tony Abbott heads to the voting room this morning. Photo: Getty Images

Tony Abbott is still the Prime Minister of Australia after this morning’s Liberal Party leadership spill. The motion for a leadership vote, which would have opened the floor up to alternate nominations for Liberal Party leader, was defeated 61 votes to 39 (with one informal vote and one absent member).

The spill has come after the Liberal party plummeted to a 43 per cent approval rating against the Labour Party’s 57 per cent rating on a two-party-preferred basis, the Liberal’s lowest approval polling months. More recently, Abbott’s Prime Ministership has come under fire after he bestowed Australia’s highest order of knighthood to the Queen’s Husband, Prince Phillip, and after he scrapped his controversial paid parental leave and overhauled the government’s Medicare co-payment policy earlier this year.

It was widely accepted that, had the motion for a leadership spill been passed, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull would likely have stood as a candidate for the leadership. Turnbull, who was leader of the Liberal Party from September 2008 until December 2009, has a 64 per cent approval rating, towering over Abbott’s 25 per cent, according to the latest Newspoll. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has a 59 per cent approval rating.

Although the Prime Minister has survived the spill, questions about his leadership capabilities still remain. The spill ballot was also a secret vote, allowing key ministers (some 39 of them) in the Liberal party to voice their concern in anonymity.

Speaking to the press yesterday, the Prime Minister admitted that he was “very chastened” by the potential leadership spill. “I am determined that my Government… will learn from this experience, will be different and better.”

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