More than a third of Liberal MPs and senators voted to throw leadership open, leaving prime minister damaged but still in office

Tony Abbott has promised his party he has learned from his “near-death experience” and the government would fight on fewer policy fronts and take a more pragmatic approach to the Senate.

Abbott clung to power and bought time to resuscitate his prime ministership after a motion for a leadership vote was defeated by 61 votes to 39 in a special party room meeting in Canberra on Monday.

But the fact that 39 members of his Liberal party effectively lodged a no-confidence vote against him, their pointed public criticism and devastating polls that put the Labor party ahead 57% to 43% on a two-party-preferred basis mean many in the party are sceptical the prime minister will survive in the long term.

Liberal leadership spill motion defeated 61 votes 39 – politics live Read more

The Coalition’s Senate leader, Eric Abetz, conceded the leadership team took “a degree of chastisement” from the extent of support for the spill motion.

Guardian Australia understands Abbott referred to his “near-death experience” while canvassing backbenchers and in the party room meeting, signalling that he intended to heed their message and improve his performance.

He explicitly asked backbenchers to give him another six months to turn around the government’s fortunes, at which point the issue could be revisited – but insisted he could win the next election, due in 2016, against Bill Shorten’s Labor team.

Abbott’s message to the party room after the vote was that he had learnt from the experience and things would change, including more consultation and a strategic decision not to fight on so many policy fronts.

He indicated the government would test its policy ideas with crossbench senators in a bid to avoid the difficulties it encountered last year in passing key budget measures.

And while the government has not formally abandoned its push to introduce a Medicare co-payment, Abbott referred to his time as health minister in the Howard government and underlined the importance of keeping medicos on side with proposed changes.

The prime minister held out an olive branch to those who had spoken out in the lead-up to the spill motion, saying he would not hold it against them.

Abbott also appealed to his colleagues to stop backgrounding the media.

The deputy Liberal leader, Julie Bishop, told the meeting the leadership team’s door was open. She knew people had had concerns, including her, but they should not let them fester.

The chief whip, Philip Ruddock, reported the results of the ballot 15 minutes after the special party room meeting began. He said there was also one informal vote and one MP was on paternity leave.

Despite the backbench signalling its strong concerns with the government’s political fortunes, Abbott insisted the matter was now “behind us” and he was determined to “end the disunity and the uncertainty which destroyed two Labor governments”.

In a message he recorded in his office aimed at voters, Abbott repeated his argument that prime ministers should not be removed in mid-term by their parliamentary colleagues.

“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,” Abbott said, contradicting the views of senior Liberals that the leadership is the gift of the party room.

Abbott said the government would now focus on jobs, families, the economy and national security. “I love this country, and I will do my best to help our country to succeed,” he said.

The West Australian backbencher Luke Simpkins, who moved the spill motion, said: “I think this has been a good wake-up call. The prime minister has taken on board what our concerns have been and we look forward to that being implemented.”

Abetz said he was confident Abbott would be prime minister at the 2016 election “and also after it”. The Coalition’s Senate leader said some issues were now off the table, such as paid parental leave and prime ministerial decisions on knighthoods, and the government was consulting on health policy.

“In making tough decisions you need to bring the backbench and most importantly the Australian people with you,” Abetz told Sky News.

As the move to unseat Abbott grew – with deep underlying grievances brought to the surface by his widely ridiculed decision to grant Prince Philip a knighthood – the prime minister ditched the government’s commitment to continuing budget cuts but apparently changed his position on a major defence acquisition to win votes in the shipbuilding state of South Australia.

Had the spill succeeded, Malcolm Turnbull was expected to stand. But he never formally declared his hand, insisting to his backers that the success of his prime ministership would depend on him not being seen to have knifed an elected prime minister.

It was also widely believed Bishop had agreed to serve under Turnbull and that several ministers also supported the coup, leaving the prime minister with a divided frontbench and a backbench so disaffected it was prepared to move against him.

Shorten, who was instrumental in Labor’s leadership changes, said the Liberal party was “ripping itself apart” in a display of “chaos and dysfunction”.

“While the Liberal government fights with itself, Labor will keep fighting for the people hurt by the government’s broken promises,” the opposition leader said, adding that Labor had learnt its lesson from the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard leadership changes.

The Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who helped unseat Turnbull as Liberal leader in 2009, and who said his return would split the Liberal party, accused the communications minister of orchestrating the ambush. Bernardi said Turnbull was “up to his ears in this” and questioned how the minister could remain in the cabinet.