LIBERAL LEADERSHIP SPILL"We cannot govern ourselves in an internal climate of fear and intimidation. And that is the unacceptable situation we have endured for the past five years."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 'co-operative', 'consultative' and 'collegial'  party leadership style is finally exposed in three short sentences.

Teresa Gambaro, Federal Liberal MP for Brisbane, 8 February 2015

The question to be resolved at 9 am this morning is whether 101 members of the federal parliamentary Liberal Party will continue to support Tony Abbott or will they honour their oaths and place loyalty to their electorates, states and the nation first.

UPDATE

This morning, 9 February 2015, Liberal Party MPs and senators woke to the latest Newspoll published in The Australian: 

If a federal election had been held between 6-8 February 2015 with Tony Abbott as prime minister, the Coalition's primary vote would have been reduced to 35 per cent against Labor's 41 per cent.

On two-party-preferred preference flows the Coalition would have lost the election to Labor, 43 per cent to 57 per cent. 

Abbott's performance satisfaction rating was polled at just 24 per cent.

FURTHER UPDATES

# The leadership spill motion failed with the party room vote going 61 to 39 in Tony Abbott's favour, with one abstention.

# Suddenly Abbott discovers that the national economy is essentially strong…..

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s statement post-leadership spill motion on 9 February 2015:

The Liberal Party has dealt with the spill motion and now this matter is behind us. We are absolutely determined to work for you the people who elected us. We want to end the disunity and the uncertainty which destroyed two Labor governments and give you the good government that you deserve. We think that when you elect a government, when you elect a Prime Minister, you deserve to keep that government and that Prime Minister until you have a chance to change your mind.

So the focus now is once more on jobs, families, a stronger economy and a secure nation. We do face many challenges. At heart, we are a highly successful country, justifiably proud of what we’ve achieved. In essence, we are a strong economy with so much creativity and dynamism and the challenge for government is to work with you, not against you. I love this country. I will do my best to help our country to succeed.