Leadership the 'gift' of the party room, say MPs, as fresh move on Abbott builds

Two of the prime minister’s colleagues, Julie Bishop and Scott Morrison, have pointed out the Liberal party leadership is the “gift” of the party room as Tony Abbott faces a fresh and damaging move against his leadership.

Before departing for New Zealand on Friday, the prime minister once again invoked arguments that he was elected by the people and intended to submit himself to the people’s judgment at the next federal election.

But the social services minister, Scott Morrison, while noting his “hope” that Abbott would lead the Coalition to the next election, also pointed out during an interview with 3AW on Friday morning that leadership was a gift of the party room – and “anyone who pretends differently is kidding themselves.”

Speaking in New Zealand, Julie 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. That has always been the case. I imagine it will continue to be the case.”

Abbott looking over the heads of colleagues irritated MPs in the lead-up to the spill motion three weeks ago. Having repeated the offending mantra that he was in the voter’s hands on Friday morning, the prime minister corrected his observation later on Friday.

“Obviously I am the subject of the party room and I’m the subject of the electorate,” Abbott said late Friday. “All democratic politicians in our system have different constituencies to which they are necessarily and rightly beholden. There is the party room and there is the people and I’m looking forward to continuing to have the confidence of both.”

Both Morrison and Bishop attempted to minimise the latest round of disquiet – Morrison terming it “a bit of political bedwetting” and some “low-level rumbling trying to talk itself up.”

Bishop declared she was getting on with the job and advised colleagues to do the same, but she also refused to answer a question about whether she would run against Malcolm Turnbull in the event there was to be a successful spill of the leadership. “These are hypothetical questions and this is all based on speculation and rumour,” Bishop said on Friday.

Both Turnbull and Bishop have been speaking to worried backbenchers during the sitting week, listening to concerns and asking how they saw the political situation. Neither has overtly canvassed for votes, but both have made it clear that if another spill motion was carried they would stand.

Both Turnbull and Bishop cut across statements by the prime minister during this past week – Turnbull departing from the prime minister’s formulations about the Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs, and Bishop pointedly praising the leadership of Australia’s Islamic community after a rebuke by Abbott in the course of delivering a national security statement on Monday.

The despair within the Liberal party has grown since the last spill motion was defeated by 61 votes to 39. Support for a leadership change from within the ministry has grown. Backbenchers, who forced the last spill motion, say any move for another leadership spill will have to come from the ministry.

Internal eyes are on the treasurer Joe Hockey. During an interview with Sydney radio station 2UE, Hockey backed Abbott’s line about leadership being determined by the voters. “The Australian people have the right to remove a prime minister, nobody else.”

But while despair is permeating the government, there is also disquiet within the party about the consequences of deposing a first-term leader, particularly when there are no obvious or easy solutions to the government’s residual policy and political problems, and when the Liberal party is riven by what are, in essence, factional disputes.

One MP on Friday likened a leadership shift to the “same wheelie bin with a different coloured top”.

Turnbull also remains unpalatable for many conservatives in the party and for a substantial proportion of the Liberal party base. If the ministry moves against Abbott, and Bishop is in the field, the situation would become much more complicated and difficult for Turnbull.

Before departing for New Zealand, Abbott told reporters the latest internal unrest was just more “Canberra insider gossip”.

“The people expect the government and the prime minister they elect to go forward doing the job that we were elected to do, and then to submit ourselves to their judgment at the next election,” the prime minister said.

“And that’s certainly what I expect to be doing.”

Abbott has faced a rugged parliamentary week, which has seen incendiary leaks from within the Liberal party organisation, key figures at public odds over policies, and a damaging furore concerning the Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs.

The manager of government business, Christopher Pyne, declared on breakfast television on Friday there would not be another spill motion next week, when federal parliament is due to resume.

“My colleagues talk to me all the time and my sense is that the spill motion was decided two weeks ago,” Pyne said. “There is a bit of static on the television news last night, there is not a leadership challenge. There will not be a spill motion move next week.”

Speaking to reporters in New Zealand late on Friday, Abbott said he believed he enjoyed “the full confidence” of his colleagues.

“Look, I don’t say for a second that there aren’t people around who are prepared to do a bit of background briefing against colleague A or colleague B. I mean, sadly that’s been with us since time immemorial. But the important thing is what the government is doing,” the prime minister said.

Stopped by reporters outside his Sydney home, Turnbull said he did not intend to “fuel this continued speculation about the Liberal party leadership”.