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Conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who swept to power promising to bring stability to Australia, now faces being dumped after alienating voters and his own party with a series of perceived missteps and policy backflips.
Abbott said today that he would fight a leadership challenge within his ruling Liberal Party next week, ending long speculation about his future.
Earlier in the day, Liberal lawmaker Luke Simpkins indicated he would move a motion to declare the leadership vacant, and a second lawmaker indicated he would second the motion.
“I have spoken to deputy leader Julie Bishop and we will stand together in urging the party room to defeat this [challenge],” Abbott told reporters. Julie Bishop, who also serves as foreign minister, and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull are the frontrunners to replace Abbott.
“As you know, two of my colleagues have called for a leadership spill of the two senior positions in our party,” Abbott said.
He said that while the two lawmakers are entitled to the spill motion, “they are asking the party room to vote out the people that the electorate voted in in September 2013”.
The former trainee Catholic priest, boxing enthusiast and die-hard monarchist, ditched his “Mad Monk” tag and softened his macho image to win office with a comfortable majority in September 2013.
But after less than 18 months in power, he has delivered an unpopular budget, made a U-turn on several major policies and alienated back-benchers with decisions seen as tin-eared.
Awarding an Australian knighthood to Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip, on Australia Day last month, unleashing a wave of ridicule and astonishment.
“The knighthood issue was for many the final proof of disconnection with the people,” said Liberal MP Luke Simpkins in his letter to his party colleagues urging a leadership vote.
Economic measures proposed by his government including a small payment for a visit to the doctor and deregulating university fees have also been unpopular.
Abbott’s unpopularity has also been blamed for the electoral defeat of the Liberal-National coalition government in the state of Victoria in November and its likely defeat in Queensland.
Anthony John Abbott was born in London in 1957. He grew up in Australia, attending the University of Sydney before taking up a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University.
He briefly trained as a Catholic priest before becoming a journalist and then pursuing a career in politics, entering parliament in 1994 and rising to health minister in John Howard’s government.
Although he had wanted to be prime minister for much of his life, Abbott was not the first choice to lead the Liberals in opposition after Howard was ousted in 2007.
He only won the Liberal leadership in December 2009 by a single vote, and reportedly to a “gobsmacked silence” in Canberra, after a bitter internal debate over climate change.
As opposition leader, Abbott was relentless in attack - first when Labour dumped sitting prime minister Kevin Rudd for Julia Gillard in 2010, and then helping to push Gillard to such opinion polls lows that Labour reinstalled Rudd in 2013, just weeks ahead of an election the Liberal leader won.
Abbott had previously been known as a political hard man of the Liberal Party, unafraid to speak his mind and occasionally tripping up with a gaffe.
His straight-talking landed him in hot water, particularly when he labelled the science behind climate change “absolute crap” and threatened to “shirtfront” Russian leader Vladimir Putin after the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine with 38 Australians onboard.
But the veteran politician, labelled sexist by Gillard in a fierce parliamentary tirade against misogyny, rebuilt his image ahead of the 2013 election.
He appeared regularly with his wife and three adult daughters, spoke of his closeness to his gay sister and even admitted to being a fan of the British period drama Downton Abbey.
A former boxer for Oxford University, Abbott keeps up his sport as a volunteer firefighter during the hazardous bushfire season and a surf life saver near his northern Sydney home.
He is often seen in lycra bike shorts and small swimming shorts.
Asked to describe himself on Friday, Abbott said he had “always been a bit reluctant to blow my own trumpet”.
“I’m the father of three daughters, I’m the brother of three sisters, I love my community, which I try to serve as a volunteer firefighter and as a surf lifesaver,” he told commercial radio.
“Obviously, I like sport and try to get plenty of physical exercise because I think that’s good for your mental health as well as everything else.
“But most of all, I am the prime minister of our country and I am spending every ounce of energy, I am dedicating every fibre of my being, to try to ensure that this country flourishes.”


Australian PM Tony Abbott vows to fight lawmakers' challenge to unseat him

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the leadership challenge flies in the face of the people's vote in the September 2013 election. Photo: AFP

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