SYDNEY, Feb 9 : Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott vowed on Monday to change after surviving a confidence vote on his leadership, while urging an end to the disunity that has seen the government's popularity plummet.
Abbott has been fighting for his job after poor poll ratings and a series of policy backflips spurred some MPs from his conservative Liberal Party openly to attack him, calling last week for a leadership "spill".
The motion aimed to declare vacant the positions of party leader and deputy leader, occupied by Abbott and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
If it had succeeded, the party room -- Liberal Party members of both houses of parliament -- could have voted for new candidates.
But the 101 Liberal parliamentarians -- one was absent -- rejected the proposal by 61 to 39 in a secret ballot. One vote was discarded for either being incorrectly completed or not filled in at all.
In a televised statement, Abbott called for the party to end "disunity and uncertainty" and move forward.    ?AFP