SYDNEY, Australia — Tony Abbott will remain Australia’s prime minister, fighting off a challenge to his position on Monday by lawmakers from his conservative Liberal Party.
Lawmakers in the party voted 61 to 39 against a spill motion, which would have declared the party’s leader and deputy leadership positions vacant. Had the motion succeeded, party members would then have voted to fill the positions held by Mr. Abbott and his deputy, Julie Bishop, Australia’s foreign minister.
Emerging from the vote in Canberra, Mr. Abbott said, The Liberal Party has dealt with the spill motion, and now this matter is behind us.
We are absolutely determined to work for you, the people who elected us, he added. We want to end the disunity and the uncertainty which destroyed two Labor governments, and give you the good government that you deserve.
The previous Labor government lost an election in September 2013 after twice dumping its leaders.
The ballot was held in secret at a specially convened meeting of lawmakers from the Liberal Party.
A junior lawmaker, Luke Simpkins from Western Australia, had called Friday for the move, amid growing dissatisfaction with Mr. Abbott’s leadership.
Mr. Abbott has been forced in the past week to promise to run a more collegial team and has acknowledged that some of his own major policy platforms were politically unpalatable. He said the government would now focus on jobs and families and on strengthening the economy. He has described the challenge just 16 months into his leadership as a chastening experience.
Last week Australia’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate in response to a drop in resources prices, dampened forecasts for economic growth and expectations that unemployment will rise.
Before the leadership vote, Kate Carnell, head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said business confidence had fallen, and industry leaders were not confident about the country’s direction.
The future of Australia right now is pretty flat, Ms. Carnell said Monday. It is a real issue. The government doesn’t seem to be able to prosecute the direction that it said it wanted to go down. What business wants? It wants a vision.
Ms. Carnell said that industry leaders wanted the government to cut expenditures but that stronger economic growth was more important.
Mr. Abbott and his governing conservatives have been unable to get many of their major measures from last year’s May budget passed through the Senate. But after retaining office on Monday, he said, At heart, we are a highly successful country, justifiably proud of what we have achieved.
He continued: In essence, we are a strong economy with so much creativity and dynamism, and the challenge for government is to work with you, not against you. I love this country, and I will do my best to help our country to succeed.
Mr. Abbott was due in Parliament, which was to resume Monday after a long summer recess.
Andrew Laming, a Liberal Party member from the state of Queensland, had been strongly critical of the prime minister before the vote, and especially Mr. Abbott’s decision on Jan. 26, the holiday known as Australia Day, to knight the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip.
I believe strongly we can move ahead from here, Mr. Laming said Monday. Many of us were sending a signal to the prime minister for change, and he has promised that.
He reiterated that Mr. Abbott’s job was now safe even though 40 percent of those party members voting had wanted a change, stating that many of them would be satisfied with sending the signal.
But John Wanna, a professor of politics at the Australian National University, warned that discontent remained high, even though the prime minister won a majority of the votes. The numbers show widespread dissatisfaction, he said.
It is a strong warning shot, he said. He is going to have to remake himself quickly with this sort of dissent.
