In an interview on Fairfax TV’s Breaking Politics, Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor said talk about a proposed Bill to abolish Australian knighthoods was a huge distraction and he would not be supporting its introduction into parliament.

He says it’s time to drop distractions and get on with the main game.

“The main game here is the economy. We have some huge challenges in the Australian economy. We’ve got to focus on creating jobs, we’ve got to focus on getting businesses investing – because that’s the only real antidote to the falling away in demand. I’m really not interested in these distractions.”

He said the Labor Party fell for the idea that changing leaders was a silver bullet and a solution to implementing difficult policies.

“And the truth of the matter is it didn’t work and we’ve seen this time and time again. Leadership changes are seductive, but ineffective in dealing with the real issue.

“You’ve got to step back from all of this and say what’s the problem here: and the problem is trying to drive reform in an environment where there’s a volatile electorate, (and) for the first time for decades we don’t have money coming in at a rapid rate to plaster over the cracks – so we’ve got to do hard things. We’ve got to explain those hard things to the Australian people – and changing leaders doesn’t solve that problem.”

Mr Taylor said politics and engaging voters had changed markedly in the past 20 years and was now a much more ‘direct democracy’.

“They vote you off the island, so to speak, at a rapid pace. And we have to adapt to that and it means, if we want to drive reform, then we’ve got to do it in a very different way. We have to be much more consultative, we have to bring people on the journey – and we’re learning that. The journey is as important as the destination.”

Angus Taylor’s full interview on the Breaking Politics website: http://media.smh.com.au/video-news/video-national-news/lib-mp-leadership-changes-ineffective-6223862.html