SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s embattled prime minister, Tony Abbott, said Friday that he would fight an attempt to contest his leadership next week, after a junior politician from his conservative Liberal Party called for the vote.
“We are not the Labor Party, and we are not going to repeat the chaos and the instability of the Labor years,” Mr. Abbott said at a news conference in Sydney on Friday, referring to the party his conservative coalition ousted in September 2013, whose time in power was marked by leadership changes and bitter infighting.
–
The infighting recalled the turbulence of the Labor years, which Mr. Abbott scathingly criticized as the opposition leader. Labor replaced its own leader twice, removing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in his first term and replacing him with Julia Gillard before returning to Mr. Rudd shortly before the 2013 election. The moves were seen as crippling to Labor’s chances of staying in power.
