Following three Labor leadership spills in two terms of government, former prime minister Kevin Rudd built walls around a sitting Labor PM by raising the bar to force a spill to a requirement of 60 per cent of caucus. Member for Hume Angus Taylor. Credit:Jeff de Pasquale He originally proposed 70 per cent but the reforms were watered down amid concern from the union movement that its caucus influence would be eroded. Before Monday's vote, Liberal elders including former Howard government minister Peter Reith acknowledged there are "no rules and no certainty about leadership contests" in the Liberal party room. Mr Taylor, who is tipped as a future minister, voted against the spill motion on Monday and said the contest "achieved nothing".

"I think it's time for the Liberal Party to have a talk about maybe some constitutional changes and you think hard about under what circumstances a leadership spill should be possible," he said. "People want us to govern. The overwhelming thing we have heard out in the electorate is 'can you just get on with governing the country' - and they are right. But when there's always this risk of a leadership spill it is very hard to do that. "The obvious option is that we make it much more difficult between elections to have a leadership spill. Then if things aren't going well then you just have to knuckle down and do the work." Mr Alexander told colleagues that there must be a "better way" and said the party needed to hold a conversation around rules. Fears emerged quickly after the Monday vote that Mr Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey would not longer have the political capital to continue their policy of tough budget medicine to rein in the national debt.

Mr Abbott has already foreshadowed a families package that will "put money in the pockets of families" while saying much of the heavy lifting had been achieved by the Coalition's much-derided first budget. Mr Taylor said the type of political instability that has so far dominated 2015 was not conducive to good policy. "Australian politics, and politics worldwide, is much more volatile now than it was because we have so much direct communication with voters. It's much cheaper and easier to run a campaign than it was 10 or 20 years ago with email and social media and so on," he said. "That means there is a risk of volatility and instability in politics. You need a degree of stability in order just to govern, just to get basic debate to happen and get hard policies in place. If there is always a risk of leadership change it is very hard to create that stability. "A spill is not an effective way to govern the country and fortunately now I think we can get on with the job of doing what the country really wants us to do."

Mr Taylor said it was obvious that Mr Abbott had received the message of the Liberal dissenters. "It's very clear top me that the Prime Minister has heard that loud and clear. As he said, this was a tough experience for him." Follow us on Twitter