Prime Minister Tony Abbott has stood by his decision to make Prince Philip a knight of the Order of Australia, but says he will consult more broadly in the future.

In a press conference on Wednesday morning, the prime minister said he stood by his controversial decision to knight the Duke of Edinburgh on Australia Day.

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“I respect peoples’ right to disagree with my call on this, but Prince Philip has been a distinguished servant of this country,” he said.

“He’s been part of some of the big events of our national life, going back to the 1956 Olympics.”

Coalition MPs have distanced themselves from the decision, which Mr Abbott called a ‘captain’s pick’, with Queensland Premier Campbell Newman saying he disagreed with the move.

Mr Abbott said he would take the criticism “on the chin”.

Rosie Batty after being named Australian of the Year.

“The decision I made was made for good reasons and I stand by it, but obviously there are some lessons in these things and the lesson I need to learn is that there needs to be some wider sort of consultation in the future.”

Domestic violence a priority in 2015

Mr Abbott also announced domestic violence as a key priority of the Coaltion of Australian Governments (COAG) in 2015.

“It is going on the COAG agenda, and COAG will be asked to act urgently this year to finally agree on a national domestic violence order scheme so that domestic violence order on one jurisdiction holds in another jurisdiction,” he said.

“I’m the father of three daughters, I am the brother of three sisters – the last thing I want to see tolerated is violence against women and children.”

“If fleeing violence, the violence should not be allowed to follow them. That why it’s so important to have a national domestic violence order scheme.”

The prime minister met with Australian of the Year and domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty on Wednesday morning to discuss a national awareness campaign.

He said he wanted an agreement between state governments to be in place by the end of the year, saying “silo thinking” was too common in Australian politics.