Lenore Taylor and Shalailah Medhora Friday 13 February 2015
Some Liberal MPs accuse prime minister of blaming long-serving MP for the 39 votes supporting a leadership spill on Monday
Tony Abbott says Philip Ruddock ‘remains an important counsellor for Coalition members’. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP
Tony Abbott has removed the longest-serving Liberal MP and “father of the house” Philip Ruddock from his position as the chief whip and has also promoted the loyal backbench supporter Andrew Nikolic in what some MPs are describing as post-leadership spill recrimination.
The prime minister announced late on Friday that the Queensland backbencher Scott Buchholz would take over from Ruddock as the chief government whip and Nikolic would be promoted to whip, alongside the West Australian backbencher Nola Marino.
Ruddock refused to confirm the changes, saying: “The position is a gift of the leader and I will leave it up to him to make any statements.”
But other Liberal MPs were scathing about the decision, and said they thought Abbott was laying blame on Ruddock for the fact that there were 39 votes against the prime minister in the spill motion.
“It seems that someone has to be blamed for the fact that they can’t count,” one Liberal told Guardian Australia. “This is shabby treatment. What is he supposed to have done wrong?
“And he shows he has the guts to sack Ruddock, but not the guts to sack [the prime minister’s chief of staff, Peta] Credlin.”
After surviving Monday’s spill, Abbott promised there would be no repercussions, saying: “I’m not into retribution. We have been an outstanding team.”
In the lead-up to the spill motion, Nikolic wrote a letter to all his colleagues urging unity. “I’m struggling to understand how that has happened in the proud team I thought I’d joined,” he wrote.
He said “only weak parties lose their composure and unity of purpose when challenged” and “we are not that party”.
In a statement, the prime minister thanked and praised Ruddock, who was a long-serving minister during the Howard years, for “for his extraordinary contribution to our country, this government and the Liberal party”.
“As father of the house, Philip has given over four decades of service to the Australian parliament and the Australian people … I look forward to his future contribution to the government and to our country. He remains an important counsellor for Coalition members of parliament and will continue to serve as member for Berowra with distinction.”
Ruddock was elected in 1973.
