Politics Live: Tony Abbott faces Liberal leadership spill threat

Time to call it a day.

What happened?

• a motion to spill the leadership positions of the Liberal Party was defeated 61 to 39;
• this means Tony Abbott remains Prime Minister;
• but it also means more than one third of his party room are unhappy with his leadership;
• Mr Abbott says he was "chastened" by the experience and has promised to more consultative and not pursue unpopular policies;
• everyone is being terribly polite and saying he should be given plenty of time to make everything alright.

Everyone is very busy getting back to work for Australia:

The meeting was over relatively quickly and people have been terribly polite about each other since.

As one MP said, it was about the what not the who.

Everyone is talking about giving Mr Abbott time and Mr Abbott is promising faithfully to be more consultative.

Labor, meanwhile, is road testing lines about Malcolm Turnbull while not so secretly being delighted that the government might experience a fresh outbreak of leadership speculation and that Mr Abbott is still prime minister. He works well for the Opposition.

Where is everything going now?

Tony Abbott remains the Prime Minister. But 39 of 101 MPs basically cast a vote of no confidence in him this morning.

This means either Mr Abbott will turn things around for the government and restore the faith of his backbench or Mr Abbott will not turn things around and the discontent will grow until we find ourselves back here some time in the future.

Junior minister Jamie Briggs is speaking to Sky News.

"We can absolutely win this election," he says.

"[MPs] want the Prime Minister to improve, they want the government to improve."

Mr Briggs says "we have only talked about ourselves" for the past few weeks and "the Australian people are sick of it".

Texts from Julie.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Treasurer Joe Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Question Time on Monday.Credit: Andrew Meares

The Opposition rehearsed its lines for a possible Malcolm Turnbull prime ministership in Question Time.

In this piece Chris Johnson looks at what that would mean for Labor (should it ever come to pass).

Liberal Party HQ has been busy while all this was going on.

It has emailed pretty much anyone whose email address it holds with a personalised message from the Prime Minister assuring the reader that the nasty leadership business is all over.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Treasurer Joe Hockey and Prime Minister Tony Abbott in Question Time on Monday.Credit: Andrew Meares

Political reporter Judith Ireland has been looking at the history of leadership challenges to see if there are any lessons to be learned.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey in Question Time on Monday.Credit: Andrew Meares

In the end it all comes to nothing.

The motion to suspend standing orders is defeated 87 to 54.

That's it for Question Time today.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull during Question Time on Monday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen