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Prime Minister Tony Abbott has promised his colleagues that he is listening and learning the lessons of his widely mocked decision to honour Prince Philip with an Australian knighthood on Australia Day.
After two days of relentless backlash from the public, the media and his own backbench, Mr Abbott fronted the media in Melbourne on Wednesday to accept responsibility for the decision and "take it on the chin".
The Prime Minister acknowledged his honour for Prince Philip was a "contentious decision" but said the Duke Of Edinburgh awards scheme made him worthy of being named a knight.
"The decision is made, it was made for good reasons and I stand by it, but obviously there are some lessons in these things and the lesson that I learn is that there does need to be wider consultation about these sorts of awards in the future," he said.
"I'm determined to learn from all of this and run the best possible government in 2015."
He stressed that he alone made the decision and said he did not consult his chief of staff, Peta Credlin, who is a controversial figure because of her often criticised management style. When pressed, Mr Abbott said he would not get involved in "internal navel gazing".
The controversy has sparked serious chatter among Mr Abbott's colleagues about his leadership. Some are even floating the idea of calling a meeting of backbench MPs to discuss the "direction of the team".
Publicly, ministers are assuring voters that the Prime Minister enjoys the full support of the partyroom but privately, many MPs fear Mr Abbott's authority has expired.
More than half a dozen Liberals have told Fairfax Media they are being inundated by requests from their branch members, donors and supporters to "get rid of him [Mr Abbott]".
Several MPs, including Ewen Jones, Nationals senator Matt Canavan and cabinet Minister Barnaby Joyce have publicly criticised the Prime Minister's decision while other ministers have stressed they were not involved with the idea.
Mr Abbott said he accepted the right of his team to question his decisions.
"Everything I do is obviously open to question because that's the nature of our democracy," he said.
