Liberal party room to meet on Monday morning to vote on spill motion

A spill motion to consider the Liberal leadership had been scheduled for Tuesday morning, however Mr Abbott has moved to bring it forward by 24 hours.

"This morning, I have asked the chief government whip to call a special party room meeting for 9.00am on Monday 9 February to consider the spill motion," Mr Abbott said in a statement.

"It is important to end the uncertainty at the very beginning of the parliamentary sitting week."

"The normal Party Room meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning will also go ahead in the usual way."

Tony Abbott says the last thing Australia needs right now is uncertainty and instability as he moves to stave off a challenge to his leadership.

‘‘The best thing we can do is deal with the spill motion as quickly as possible,’’ Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney on Sunday

Speaking outside his Sydney home on Sunday morning before Mr Abbott announced he would bring the party room meeting forward to Monday, likely leadership contender Malcolm Turnbull praised the Prime Minister for holding the meeting on Tuesday.

"He's also, I think, shown great respect for the party room by saying that the meeting will be on Tuesday which is the normal party room meeting," Mr Turnbull said.

"The virtue of having it on Tuesday - I know Tony Abbott very well, he is a good friend of mine, that's why he has said the meeting will be on Tuesday because he knows members coming to Canberra, who will be getting lots of phone calls, talking to constituents, many of which will be uncertain, will want to have the opportunity to sit down and talk to each other in the nation's capital in the course of that Monday leading up to the Tuesday."

The Communications Minister, who had steered clear of the media and cameras since Mr Abbott agreed to a spill motion upon the request of two WA MPs on Friday afternoon, said MPs needed time to talk among themselves rather than through the media.

Mr Turnbull said as a member of cabinet he was expected to, and would support the Prime Minister by voting against the spill motion.

"I know people keep on saying to me - every day they say 'Do you support the Prime Minister? Do you support the Prime Minister?'. I'm in the cabinet, of course I support the Prime Minister."

Mr Turnbull said many colleagues had asked him what he would do if the spill motion were carried.

"There is certainly a lot of members who have asked me about that, plainly. But it's very important to remember that the leadership of the Liberal Party is, as John Howard said, in the unique gift of the party room. In the unique gift of the party room," he said.

"Now, what that means is that members of the party room have got to have the time to talk to each other, backbenchers talking to each other, backbenchers talking to frontbenchers, frontbenchers talking to frontbenchers and so forth.

"That's the point of Parliament, that people come together and have a talk. That's what we're paid to do by our constituents. It's really important that we talk to our colleagues directly rather than, you know, giving them advice or lecturing them or trying to communicate with them through the media."

Mr Turnbull said the MPs who were proposing the spill motion were not acting on his behalf, but their concerns needed to be treated seriously.

"This is a grass-roots issue that has been raised. That's got to be respected," he said.

"I believe that we as a party, one of our great strengths in the Liberal Party, is that we are a grass-roots organisation and we've got to respect our members, our branch members. We've got to respect our members in the party room, whether they're the Prime Minister or the newest elected backbencher. That's my focus. I'm talking with them and no doubt, as this develops, there will be other things being said."

SMH