WHAT LIBERALS ARE SAYING ABOUT MONDAY’S LEADERSHIP SPILL MEETING:

“The only question for our party is do we want reduce ourselves to the level of the Labor Party in dragging down a first-term prime minister?”

– Tony Abbott tells reporters in Sydney on Sunday

“It’s inconceivable it would be in the best interests of either the Liberal Party or the country for the Prime Minister to go into the parliament tomorrow with this issue unresolved.”

– Cabinet minister Mathias Cormann

“I’m in the cabinet, of course I support the Prime Minister, everyone supports the Prime Minister. You don’t have to keep on saying that all the time.”

– Malcolm Turnbull tells reporters outside his Sydney home on Sunday morning

Malcolm Turnbull.

“If you are going to be disloyal to someone, you should front them. If I disagreed with the Prime Minister and if I believed he wasn’t the best person to lead the team I would step down from the cabinet – that is the appropriate thing to do”

– Treasurer Joe Hockey when asked whether Tony Abbott could expect all cabinet ministers to oppose the spill motion

“If, for whatever reason, the leadership of a political party is vacant then any member of the party can stand, whether they be a minister or a backbencher, without any disloyalty to the person whose leadership has been declared vacant.”

– Turnbull later tells reporters on his way into a Liberal fundraising event in his electorate

“The virtue of having it on Tuesday – I know Tony Abbott very well, he is a good friend of mine, that’s why he has said the meeting will be on Tuesday because he knows members coming to Canberra, who will be getting lots of phone calls, talking to constituents, many of which will be uncertain, will want to have the opportunity to sit down and talk to each other in the nation’s capital in the course of that Monday leading up to the Tuesday.”

– Turnbull before Abbott announces a special meeting of Liberal MPs will be held on Monday, not Tuesday

“He’s the prime minister and he’s made a captain’s call.”

– Turnbull responding to the PM’s announcement of an earlier meeting

No response.

– Abbott when asked by reporters whether Liberal MPs should be given more time to discuss the issue with each other

Arthur Sinodinos. Photo: Getty

“We cannot govern ourselves in an internal climate of fear and intimidation. Equally we cannot govern the country through belligerence and hubris.”

– Liberal backbencher Teresa Gambaro, a former Howard government minister

“MPs should be given time to discuss the matter at hand. Tuesday is the time to do that. It is disappointing.”

– Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos tells Fairfax Media

“Of course he does.”

– Abbott says when asked whether Joe Hockey has his full support amid reports senior Liberals have suggested the prime minister replace the treasurer with Malcolm Turnbull to save his leadership

“It is a disappointing reflection on the standard of journalism that this falsehood has been published in this way.”

– Senate government leader Eric Abetz says of reports he was one of those senior Liberals making the Hockey suggestion

“I’m just concerned we make the right decision for the Australian people, and the decision is that the motion for a spill does not be successful.”

Bronwyn Bishop. Photo: AAP

– Veteran Liberal MP Bronwyn Bishop

“Politics is not about being popular, it’s about getting what’s right for our kids and our grandkids.”

– Liberal backbencher Brett Whiteley

“So, let’s blow the joint up every six months because the polls are bad? What a ridiculous assertion.”

– Liberal backbencher Andrew Nikolic

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:

“I think that the entire nation is fed up with it. It’s as though they (the Liberals) can’t hear the rest of the nation screaming at what’s going on.”

– Key independent senator Nick Xenophon

“It’s a storm in a tea cup.”

– Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer

“Abbott, good guy, not perfect but no case for rebellion. Remember last one gave us Gillard disaster. Country still paying for it.”

– News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch tweets