Malcolm Turnbull survives Peter Dutton leadership challenge – for now

Malcolm Turnbull has urged colleagues to unite behind his leadership after he prevailed in a snap contest against the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, 48 votes to 35.

After a week of mounting pressure on Turnbull’s leadership over his handling of energy policy and election strategy, the prime minister used the regular Tuesday party-room meeting to spill the party leadership in an attempt to head off a growing conservative-led move against him.

But the result – narrow by historical standards for a first strike against a prime minister – sets the Turnbull government up for further instability and the possibility of another ballot before the next federal election.

At a press conference after the meeting Turnbull said that “unity is critical” for the government’s ability to deliver outcomes for 25 million Australians, who he said “don’t like [us] being focused on ourselves or talking about each other”.

Dutton immediately resigned from the home affairs super ministry, moving to the backbench, where he will not be constrained by cabinet solidarity that has seen him lock in reluctantly behind Turnbull’s position on the national energy guarantee and tax cuts for big business.

But Turnbull signalled there would be no retribution against any ministers who voted against him, noting it was a “secret ballot” when asked if they needed to resign and committing to do “everything I can to ensure that we are united and work together”. Turnbull said he did not bear a grudge against Dutton, whom he offered the chance to stay in cabinet. Dutton did not take up that offer, and Scott Morrison was appointed acting home affairs minister.

Dutton said he stood because he believed he had “the best prospect of leading the Liberal party to success at the next election”.

“That wasn’t to be today and I understand that and I respect the outcome and I fully support the prime minister and the cabinet,” he told reporters. But Dutton did not rule out mounting another challenge or being drafted into the top job.

Both leadership positions were spilled. The position of the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, as deputy Liberal leader was also opened, but she was the only one to nominate and was therefore re-elected.

Before vacating the the leadership, Turnbull declared the government could win the election but disunity was killing them.

Contributions in the joint Coalition party room after the vote exposed tensions in the government as well as concern at the conduct of Tony Abbott, who has lead internal opposition by conservatives against attempts to legislate an emissions reduction target and calls to cut immigration.

Abbott said the government needed to fight the election on issues that appeal to small “c” conservatives and questioned why expectations had been raised before the Longman byelection.

The Liberal MP Warren Entsch accused Abbott of breaking his commitment of “no wrecking, no undermining and no sniping” when Turnbull deposed him as Liberal leader and prime minister in September 2015.

The Nationals MP Damian Drum issued a scathing assessment of people leaking and undermining the leadership, labelling them “a fucking disgrace”. Michelle Landry and Ann Sudmalis also expressed displeasure with Abbott and said the government was currently its own worst enemy.

Abbott responded in a statement that colleagues were right to denounce leaking, but said “unlike too many of my colleagues, my practice is to take responsibility for what I think and say”.

“To put the Entsch intervention into context, I had just said to the party room that exhortations from the leadership group about loyalty and unity were all very well but ‘unity has to be created and loyalty has to be earned’. They can’t just be demanded.”

The Turnbull government has lost 38 consecutive Newspolls to the opposition Labor party, exceeding the 30-Newspoll mark Turnbull cited as one of his reasons for deposing Abbott.

Despite the poll pressure, Turnbull has been able to hold together the government since he narrowly won the 2016 election.

That uneasy peace in the Liberal party was disturbed when Labor won a byelection in the Queensland marginal seat of Longman on 28 July with a 3.5% swing to the opposition, which would tip the Liberal-National Coalition out of government if replicated nationwide.

Dutton, who holds the Queensland marginal seat of Dickson, is favoured by many conservatives and Queensland colleagues, who see his role as home affairs minister implementing the Coalition’s hardline strategy to stop asylum seeker boats through turnbacks and offshore detention as an electoral asset.

Dutton has never made a secret of wanting to lead the Liberal party and become prime minister, but so far has been a loyal supporter of Turnbull, who, along with the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, has protected his position.

As recently as Saturday, Dutton declared that he supported Turnbull’s leadership and the policies of the government, but did not rule out a challenge.

Despite winning the backing of the Coalition party room last Tuesday for the Neg, Turnbull has been forced into a series of excruciating backdowns, at first contemplating moving emissions reduction targets from legislation to regulation then suspending plans to legislate the targets.

Turnbull is still under pressure from conservatives to modify the Coalition’s schools funding package to appease concerns of the Catholic sector and to ditch the Coalition’s policy to cut corporate taxes for companies earning more than $50m.