Tony Abbott became leader of the Liberal Party in December 2009 after forcing a
leadership ballot on the subject of
Malcolm Turnbull's support of the
Labor First Rudd government's proposed
Emissions Trading Scheme.
Joe Hockey was initially thought by political commentators as the favourite to win the ballot. However, Hockey was defeated in the first round of voting, and in the second and final round, Abbott defeated Turnbull by 42 votes to 41 to become the party's leader and
Leader of the Opposition. Bishop was re-elected as Deputy Leader, and declared subsequent to the ballot in a 2013 interview that she supported Turnbull. Abbott led the Liberal/
National Coalition to the
2010 federal election where a
hung parliament was the outcome. After a protracted period of negotiations, Prime Minister
Julia Gillard formed the
Second Gillard government. Following the 2010 election, Abbott and Bishop were re-elected unopposed as leaders of the Liberal Party. 2015, the day it was announced that
Prince Philip and Air Chief Marshal
Angus Houston were appointed Knights of the
Order of Australia.At the
2013 federal election, Abbott led the Coalition to victory over the incumbent
second Rudd government. Abbott and
his ministry were sworn in on 18 September 2013. Abbott government came to power with 53.5 percent of the
two-party preferred vote. However, the Coalition failed to win control of the
Senate, that resulted in several blockages of the Coalition's proposed legislative reforms including university education and
TAFE deregulation, co-payment for
general practitioner visits, and a paid parental leave scheme. By the May release of the
2014 budget,
average polling revealed that the Abbott government's two-party preferred vote had decreased to 46 percent; and despite an upward swing in polling between August and October 2014, by late January and early February 2015, polling had reduced the two-party preferred vote to 45 percent. A
Fairfax/
Ipsos poll in released in early February revealed that Abbott's approval rating had fallen 9 points to 29 per cent since December and his disapproval had risen 10 points to 67 per cent. Abbott trailed Labor Opposition leader
Bill Shorten as preferred Prime Minister by 50 per cent to 34 per cent, an 8 point worsening for Abbott since December. On
Australia Day 2015 Abbott announced that
Queen Elizabeth had accepted his recommendation that her husband,
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, be appointed a Knight of the
Order of Australia. The appointment was criticised by Shorten who said: "It's a time warp where we're giving knighthoods to English royalty. Some people (have) wondered whether it was an Australia Day hoax."
Adam Giles,
Northern Territory chief minister and
Country Liberal Party leader, said: "I woke up this morning and read the wires and was confused between Australia Day and
April Fool's Day," adding "It makes us a bit of a joke. It's Australia Day, we're not a bunch of tossers." Abbott later stated that he had made a ''captain's call'' and not consulted with his
cabinet colleagues over the appointment. Abbott faced criticism from some parliamentarians in his own party and the Nationals over the proposed appointment. Meanwhile, the
2015 Queensland election was held on 31 January with Abbott asked to stay away from
Queensland during the campaign period.
Premier Newman, who lost his seat at the election, claimed that the decision to award a knighthood to Prince Philip caused an unwanted distraction in the final days of the campaign as Newman sought to focus on jobs and the economy. The sitting
Liberal National Party suffered a 14 point two-party swing, and lost what was considered an unlosable election (owing to its overwhelming majority) to Labor, which subsequently formed minority government. Dissent initially emerged from
backbenchers, including
Andrew Laming from Queensland, and Western Australia's
Dennis Jensen, who was the first Liberal MP to publicly call on the prime minister to resign. Their dissent was echoed by several other Liberal backbenchers, including Simpkins and Randall from
Western Australia. On Friday, 6 February, Simpkins submitted to the Chief Government Whip a motion, seconded by Randall, to spill the parliamentary leadership positions of the Liberal Party. On the day before the leadership spill vote, Abbott announced that a planned submarine deal, which previously seemed likely to be manufactured by Japanese shipbuilders, would instead proceed with an "open tender". This announcement came as a surprise as the Government had resisted calls for an open tender months prior to the spill motion, and was seen as an attempt by Abbott to secure support from
South Australian parliamentarians, such as Senator
Sean Edwards who warned he may not support Abbott in the motion over the issue.
ASC Pty Ltd, the Government owned naval shipbuilding corporation is based in
Adelaide, South Australia. After, the government chose to call it a "competitive evaluation process" rather than an "open tender" with no indication of what would change. Various media sources have reported that a
National Civic Council NCC email campaign helped in part to secure Tony Abbott's position as Prime Minister before the
spill motion in February 2015. Senator
Eric Abetz stated before the spill: "In the last few days the emails have been overwhelmingly flooding the office saying all this nonsense about leadership has gone far too far, and the emails are now overwhelmingly saying 'stick to the team you've got'" ==Liberal Party voting rules==