Lib MPs head to Canberra for spill vote

Federal Liberal MPs are on their way to Canberra for the first parliamentary sitting week of the year and a party room vote on Tony Abbott's leadership.

Australian Communication minister Malcolm Turnbull

Liberal MPs have begun arriving in Canberra ahead of a meeting to vote on Tony Abbott's leadership. (AAP)

Liberal MPs have begun arriving in Canberra ahead of a special meeting to vote on Tony Abbott's leadership.

One of the first to arrive, Tasmanian Brett Whiteley, says he won't be supporting a spill motion being proposed by two of his backbench colleagues.

"Politics is not about being popular, it's about getting what's right for our kids and our grandkids," he told reporters on Sunday.

Mr Whiteley labelled the spill motion a distraction.

Fellow Tasmanian Andrew Nikolic called on West Australian MPs Luke Simpkins and Don Randall to withdraw their spill motion.

"I think what we're getting at the moment is the sort of introspection that the Australian people explicitly rejected in September 2013," he said.

Quizzed about another opinion poll showing the coalition would be better off with Malcolm Turnbull as leader, Mr Nikolic said: "So, let's blow the joint up every six months because the polls are bad? What a ridiculous assertion."

Warren Entsch, who has pushed for the leadership crisis to be resolved at this week's party room meeting, said he would have liked more time to consider the spill motion.

The Queensland MP said he would meet with Mr Abbott later on Sunday, where he would air his grievances about the management style of the prime minister's office.

"I want to see a change in the leadership rather than the leader," he said, though he would not indicate how he would vote on the spill motion.

Victorian MP Sharman Stone confirmed she would be voting for the spill.

But WA backbencher Ian Goodenough and Liberal veteran Russell Broadbent said they would oppose the motion.

West Australian Ken Wyatt would not say how he stood on a spill.

However, he offered words of support for the prime minister.

"Tony Abbott is still a strong leader, he hasn't changed," he told reporters in Canberra.

Queensland MP Ewen Jones said the prime minister had his "100 per cent support".

He said the leadership division had "hurt" him personally.

"This is upsetting, what we're going through at the moment," he told reporters in Canberra.

"I don't think anyone is enjoying it."

Outspoken Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi said he would vote against the spill.

The prime minister deserved the opportunity to redress the government's mistakes, he said.

"Is it fair, is it just and is it right to enter into this moral abyss simply because we've had a couple of bad polls?"


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Source: AAP


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