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| Tensions build ...Tony Abbott and New Zealand
Prime Minister John Key visit Rural Fire Service firefighters in
Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Ray Strange |
TONY Abbott’s visit to New Zealand
was more like an election campaign than an official state, where he
faced questions about leadership tensions and even joked about it.
In a way, it was part of a campaign: for Mr Abbott to keep his job.
Leadership
tensions within the Liberal Party followed him across the Tasman and
for all he insisted it was just “Canberra insider gossip”. Kiwi
reporters were as fascinated by the intrigue as their Parliament House
colleagues.
“Why not just stand down?” a baffled New Zealander asked at a press conference.
It
was easy enough to avoid questions at an early morning outing to an
Auckland glass factory with wife Margie, few media and half a dozen
workers brought in specially on the weekend to meet the PM on his
15-minute tour.
But even at the formal bilateral meeting with NZ Prime Minister John
Key, Mr Abbott couldn’t escape the ghost of a possible challenge.
“John
and I obviously have discussed leadership, and I’ve come to the clear
conclusion that John’s leadership is safe,” Mr Abbott joked to reporters
at a joint press conference after the meeting. Luckily, the lure of
cricket provided some distraction.
Mr Abbott is in New Zealand for security and trade talks with his counterpart John Key.
Robb: Abbott ‘earned’ right to leadership
Trade
Minister Andrew Robb says Tony Abbott has “earned’ the right to lead the
Liberal Party as the embattled PM again defends his precarious
position.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Mr Abbott brushed
questions on his future: “I’m, as you would expect, undistracted and
undeterred by the hyperventilating which seems to be taking place at
least amongst the media. “
Despite his confidence, there is intense speculation in Canberra about a second leadership spill.
More Liberal MPs believed to have joined the 39 out of 102 who supported a spill motion on February 9.
It is unclear whether it is now a party room majority.
Speaking this morning to Sky News, trade minister Andrew Robb backed Mr Abbott to lead the government at the next election.
“He has earned the right to take us to the next election,” Mr Robb said.
“That
is usually the disposition of people when they vote a government in,
that they would expect the prime minister to be given the opportunity to
play out his program.”
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, also in New
Zealand, said she knew nothing about a leadership spill motion being
planned for next week.
“I am not aware of any attempt to bring a
spill motion to challenge the leadership. I am not aware of any such
approach,” Ms Bishop told New Zealand’s TV3 Network.
“There was a motion for a spill of the leadership a couple of weeks
ago, it was defeated.” Ms Bishop would not be drawn on whether she would
back Mr Abbott in a leadership challenge, labelling it a hypothetical
question. “I support the leader that the party has elected,” Ms Bishop
added
Will Malcolm make his move?
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is widely touted as the most likely challenger to Mr Abbott.
Mr Turnbull has so far refused to be drawn on whether he is considering a tilt at the top job.
Early this morning, Mr Turnbull again brushed off questions about the federal leadership.
“The
single most important choice here in New South Wales is between Mike
Baird and Luke Foley,” he told the Nine Network outside his Sydney home.
“The question the people of New South Wales have is do they want to put back into power the party of Eddie Obeid.”
Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg denied Tony Abbott was in a worse
position now than before the leadership spill motion earlier this
month.
“I don’t think he is,” Mr Frydenberg told Sky News.
“He
has been on the job getting around to more than a dozen electorates
around the country ... and he’s also made significant announcements on
the submarine project on foreign investment review boards activities.
“The
government is getting on with the job of governing.” He said there was
“no doubt” that some of the MPs who previously voted in favour of a
leadership spill “wanted to bring it on again”.
“They’re in a minority,” he added.
He said there were no indications that more coalition colleagues had turned against the prime minister.
Pressure mounts
Late yesterday ministers were holding
their nerve and resisting backbench pressure to seek Tony Abbott’s
resignation, saying the timing was not yet right to ask the Prime
Minister to resign.
As leadership uncertainty continued to wrack
the Liberal Party, Mr Abbott’s lieutenants were furiously trying to
squash the efforts of backbenchers who were urging their Cabinet
colleagues to “tap’’ Mr Abbott and replace him with either Deputy Leader
Julie Bishop, or more likely, Malcolm Turnbull.
While no minister had yet agreed to approach Mr Abbott directly or as part of a delegation, the
Herald Sun is aware of specific conversations between ministers about who should be tasked with the job.
One minister — an Abbott supporter — told the Herald Sun they did not know how much longer Mr Abbott could survive.
Another
senior Cabinet minister said it was now doubtful Mr Abbott would make
it until June, the unofficial time frame the party was working towards
for the PM to lift his electoral fortunes.
“It’s politics — things change,’’ the minister said.
Mr
Abbott has been threatened just 16 months into the job after a
backbench rebellion over claims he was out of touch, showing poor
judgment and failed to listen to his colleagues’ advice.
The
situation remained volatile yesterday, with talks to continue over the
weekend about what action if any should be taken against Mr Abbott as
early as this week.
And two of Cabinet’s best-performing ministers, Ms Bishop and Social
Services Minister Scott Morrison, once against distanced themselves from
claims by Mr Abbott that the Prime Minister was essentially chosen by
the people, and could only be removed by the people.
“As John Howard said, who leads the party is always the gift of the party room,’’ Mr Morrison said.
“I think anyone who pretends differently is kidding themselves.”
Ms
Bishop told reporters: “It is self-evident that the individual members
of the party room are able to elect the leader and the deputy leader of
the Liberal Party.’’
Simmering unhappiness with the PM’s
leadership flared again into full-blown anger on Thursday night after a
brutal Question Time which saw the Government unable to gain the front
foot in its battle over Human Rights Commission president Gillian
Triggs, and Mr Abbott’s robust attack on her.
Spill motion dismissed
Backbenchers who agitated for
the spill three weeks ago that was defeated 39-61 in the absence of a
challenger have said they will not pull on another spill motion, and
instead expected Cabinet to step up and tell the PM it was time to go.
“It’s on the blue carpet now, it’s gone way beyond us,’’ one said.
Mr
Turnbull sought to play down the speculation, telling reporters Mr
Abbott’s position was not untenable, and that he hadn’t been speaking to
anyone about it.
The leadership woes followed Mr Abbott and Ms
Bishop to New Zealand, where both appeared at the annual Australian New
Zealand Leadership Forum.
Mr Abbott’s controversial chief of staff
Peta Credlin does not appear to have joined him in New Zealand, a break
from the established pattern of the past 16 months which saw her
invariably join him on overseas trips.
Mr Abbott said last night that he was getting on with “good
government” and neither he nor his colleagues would be distracted by
rumour and gossip.
He also moderated his language slightly about
who had the right to remove him, saying: “Well, obviously I am the
subject of the party room and I’m the subject of the electorate.
“All democratic politicians in our system have different constituencies to which they are necessarily and rightly beholden.
“There is the partyroom and there is the people and I’m looking forward to continuing to have the confidence of both.’’
Mr
Morrison, who is touted by some as the next treasurer if Mr Abbott is
removed or resigns, labelled those agitating for immediate change as
political “bed-wetters’’.
Asked by radio station
3AW if he
wanted to be leader in the future, Mr Morrison replied: “anyone who goes
into parliament who says that they don’t aspire to do as much as they
can in politics is lying to you.
“I’m a fixer, I get things fixed, I get things done and that’s what I look to do in this portfolio and in welfare.
“People just need to stick firm, stay with the plan.’’
Ms Bishop urged her colleague to “focus on the interests and concerns of the Australian people.’’
“I don’t think this is helpful speculation,’’ she said.
“The
motion for a leadership spill did not succeed. I urge my colleagues to
get on with the job of governing for the people of Australia.”
Education
Minister Christopher Pyne was one of the few to declare with confidence
there would be no move against Mr Abbott next week.
“We are
getting on with the job this week and there’s no suggestion there will
be any kind of motion or leadership change next week,’’ he told
Channel 9.
This news is reprinted from site http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/ministers-hold-nerve-amid-pressure-from-backbenchers-to-oust-the-prime-minister/story-fni0fiyv-1227242108652
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