The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has stood flanked by possible leadership rival Julie Bishop at a press conference on Saturday morning, saying that the Coalition will deliver stability and unity.
On Tuesday, the party room will vote on a motion to spill the positions of prime minister and deputy prime minister.
Western Australian backbenchers Luke Simpkins and Don Randall on Friday called for the spill motion, despite the absence of a declared challenger.
“I’m expecting this spill motion to fail,” Abbott said during a press conference in Townsville. Abbott has not visited Queensland since before the state election was called.
“The last thing any of us should want to do is to reproduce the chaos and instability of the Labor years. We are not Labor,” Abbott said. “This Game of Thrones circus which the Labor party gave us is never going to be reproduced by this Liberal-National coalition.”
Bishop has consistently said she will vote against the leadership spill, while the other possible leadership contender, Malcolm Turnbull, has kept a low profile since the spill motion was called.
“I was elected the deputy of this party in 2007 and again in 2013, and I understand from my colleagues that they look to me for stability and certainty as deputy,” Bishop told reporters. “My role as deputy is to support the leader, not to change the leader, and I don’t support a spill motion.”
“I support the prime minister, I support the leader.”
But MPs seeking a leadership change within the party are hoping for a boost in numbers, following the prime minister’s confirmation that the spill vote will be conducted via secret ballot.
The decision on how to conduct the ballot is up to the prime minister. Allowing a secret ballot frees up ministers to vote as they see fit, rather than being confined by conventions around cabinet solidarity.
Abbott denies seeking assurances from cabinet members on his leadership.
“I know my frontbenchers, I trust my frontbenchers, I have worked for a long time with all of them. I’m not someone who runs around demanding pledges of loyalty. Loyalty is what people in this Coalition naturally deliver to each other,” Abbott said.
A new 7 News Reachtel poll finds that the Coalition may be able to reverse its waning electoral fortunes by changing leader, with Turnbull ahead of both Bishop and Abbott in terms of popularity.
But key cabinet ministers took to the airwaves on Saturday morning to show support for Abbott.
“Opinion polls are a snapshot of a particular time. I look to the long term and for the polls that actually count,” the government’s Senate leader, Eric Abetz, said.
The finance minister Mathias Cormann said the “overwhelming majority” of the party room was behind Abbott.
“People have written Tony Abbott off before,” Cormann said. “He’s come from behind before in order to lead the Liberal Party and the country.”
The trade minister, Andrew Robb, said Abbott was a fighter. “All the hard heads in the Labor party said this man is unelectable. Well he took them to the wire in 2010 and had a very substantial win in 2013. People can not and should not underestimate the prime minister,” Robb said.
