Liberal MPs challenge Prime Minister Abbott

Members of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Liberal Party pressurized him to hold a leadership ballot to demonstrate his control over the government. The Liberals' internal tensions were exacerbated recently when Abbott decided to make Britain's Prince Philip a knight.

"I don't think the leader and his office are communicating effectively," Denis Jensen, a member of Abbott's party and an MP, told ABC television. "I believe that it is necessary that it is brought to a head and lanced," Jensen added.

"I don't have unequivocal support for the prime minister," another member of parliament and a member of Abbott's party, Mal Brough, stated.

The rebel lawmakers in the conservative Liberal party suggested Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop as possible rivals to Abbott; although it wasn't clear if either would challenge the prime minister. Indeed, Bishop said she was unwilling to "challenge the leader" and would not seek the job.

Giving Australia 'certainty and stability'

Abbott himself brushed off his party members' misgivings about his leadership: "We've always had a robust party room and I hope that will always continue," Abbott said at an interview aired on Macquarie Radio.

"What I think everyone in the party room understands is that the last thing we should do is go anywhere near reproducing the rabble of Labor years," the prime minister said, referring to the previous Labor party's tenure, when former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was replaced by Julia Gillard in 2010, only to replace her again in 2013 as prime minister.

"The thing is that we were elected because people were sick of chaos… What I am determined to do is give Australia back the certainty and stability that people crave," Abbott told reporters on why people elected his conservative party in 2013.

Australia's Treasurer Joe Hockey also gathered ministers supporting Abbott, saying the cabinet was "unanimous in its support for the prime minister" and that the various members of parliament had "an obligation to be united and to provide stable government."

Abbott 'stuck in a bygone era'

Questions on Abbott's leadership gathered volume last month when he decided to make Britain's Prince Philip a knight on Australia Day, January 26. Many considered Abbott's gesture of bestowing knighthood on the 93-year-old Duke of Edinburgh as an insult to deserving Australian citizens. Some even criticized Abbott as stuck in a bygone era.

Abbott announced later that the Order of Australia Council would decide who would be made knight or dame from now on, but this has not pacified leaders. Andrew Laming, who also belongs to Abbott's Liberal Party, has decided to introduce legislation into the parliament which would abolish the titles knights and dames from the Australian honors list.

The debate on awarding knighthood to Prince Philip follows the conservative Liberal Party's dismal performance in Queensland state elections on January 31, where citizens voted against the ruling administration. Many blamed the vote swing on unpopular federal policies.

mg/msh (AFP, AP)