Australian prime minister sacks chief government whip

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Friday sacked his party's chief government whip Philip Ruddock just four days after the failed leadership spill motion on Monday.

"I have made some changes to the whip arrangements for the government," Abbott said in a statement. "I have appointed Mr. Scott Buchholz MP as Chief Government Whip."

Although Abbott labeled Buchholz as "a strong local member and is highly regarded within the party room," he is relatively less known compared with 71-year-old parliamentarian veteran Ruddock.

On Monday, Abbott survived the leadership spill motion. However, the fact that 39 Liberal parliamentarians voted against him shocked the prime minister's camp. The Australian Broadcast Corporation reported that some senior members of the party held Ruddock partly responsible for the result as he failed to rally more support for the prime minister.

Others blamed him for not passing the discontent of the backbenchers to the prime minister so that the latter would be better prepared and would not be as shock as he was on Monday by the number of "rebels" in the party.

Abbott spoke highly of Ruddock, currently the longest serving member of parliament (MP) in the House of Representatives.

"As Father of the House, Philip has given over four decades of service to the Australian Parliament and the Australian people. He was a senior minister throughout the life of the Howard government and was shadow cabinet secretary in opposition. Later this year, he will become the second longest serving parliamentarian in our history. No one has done more than Philip helping immigrants to feel at home in their new country and helping members of migrant communities to participate in our national life."

First elected in 1973, Ruddock had taken various portfolios in John Howard's cabinet.

He has been a close ally of Abbott and traveled with him for five weeks as an adviser during the 2013 election campaign.

The move to sack Ruddock as chief government whip has attracted angers from Liberal backbench, as some Liberal MP telling local newspaper they were appalled by the brutality of the decision.

Mark Kenny, Fairfax media's chief political correspondent, said the decision of removing Ruddock has angered many Liberal backbenchers and threatens to reopen the leadership question after some said they were appalled "at the vindictiveness and sheer brutality of the move on Ruddock." Endi