Tony Abbott: Nationals urge Liberals to give Prime Minister a chance

Updated

Federal National Party MPs and senators say their Liberal cousins should pull their heads in, "take a cold shower" and give Tony Abbott a chance amid speculation about the Prime Minister's leadership.

The junior Coalition party is holding its first major meeting of the year in regional Victoria today and several members are making a point of publicly endorsing the Prime Minister.

Many Nationals still have misgivings about former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull because of his support for an emissions trading scheme in 2009.

The issue fractured the Coalition and cost him the top job, losing a ballot to Mr Abbott by one vote.

But in recent times Mr Turnbull has revised his views on carbon trading, saying emissions trading schemes "have worked better in theory than in practice" and signalling that he believes Australia should take action as part of a wider "global agreement".

Some privately warn there could be a serious rift in the Coalition if he takes over as leader.

"Those who are panicking in the Liberal Party, this is no time for panic," said NSW senator John Williams.

"Tony Abbott was elected by the people to lead the country. Give him time, let him do his job and then judge us next election, is my opinion."

His views were similar to many in the party and the issue was to be discussed during today's meeting.

Nationals members do not vote for the Liberal leader and will not get a say if there is a leadership spill.

But they are hoping undecided backbenchers will take their views into account.

Most are also appalled by Mr Abbott's recent "stuff-ups", like the decision to knight Prince Philip, though there is a view the Nationals will never do as well under possible leadership contenders Julie Bishop and Mr Turnbull.

"I think it's time for cooler heads to prevail," frontbencher Darren Chester said.

"I would just suggest to my colleagues in the Liberal Party: it's time to take a cold shower, go for a long run, walk on the beach, whatever it takes.

"What's being discussed is ridiculous and our members are all pretty much unanimous in thinking that.

"I find it amazing that anyone would be looking to recreate the circumstances of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era."

Sinodinos says support for Abbott 'not unconditional'

The leadership chatter was further fuelled late yesterday by Arthur Sinodinos, the former assistant treasurer and former chief of staff to John Howard.

The senator told Sky News that his support for Mr Abbott was "not unconditional".

"It's based on being able to grapple with the issues we face at the moment, which appear to have impacted on our standing in the polls," he said.

And when asked if Mr Abbott would remain Prime Minister, he replied: "Comrade, come and ask me next week."

Some Liberals say the comments are significant because it means Abbott loyalists cannot pretend leadership chatter is limited to what they call "crazy" backbenchers.

Leadership woes jeopardise tax reform: economist

Meanwhile, there is concern the Government's current woes could see it unwilling to follow through on the promise of tax reform.

The tax white paper is expected to propose changes to superannuation as well as increasing or broadening the GST.

Economists say both ideas have merit but concede they are politically challenging.

The Coalition has promised to take any changes to the next election, but Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics is concerned the political climate could mean the process goes nowhere.

"That would be a shame. Australia used to have a great national conversation, we used to be rather better at a willingness to fight for reform," he said.

"It's getting harder and harder to see that as both sides of politics get better at ripping each other's heads off.

"Government doesn't have the political capital to deal with the tricky issues that you'd need to deal with tax reform ... the risk is that the nation may have a conversation but nothing happens."

The terms of reference for the tax white paper were to be released late last year but have been delayed.

Topics: abbott-tony, nationals, political-parties, liberals, federal-government, federal-parliament, australia

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