Former prime minister Julia Gillard has criticised the party reforms introduced by Kevin Rudd, saying they protect leaders who perform poorly.
Shortly after unseating Ms Gillard, Kevin Rudd introduced reforms which give rank-and-file members a say in the party's choice of leader.
Under the new reforms, Labor can only change leaders when the former leader resigns, the party loses an election, or three-quarters of the caucus votes no confidence in the leader.
The first contest governed by these rules is underway, with Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese beginning a month-long campaign to win the job of opposition leader.
But Ms Gillard has written in that the new rules represent "exactly the wrong approach", protecting poorly performing incumbents instead of the best candidate.
"I argue against them because they are a clumsy attempt to hold power; they are not rules about leadership for purpose.
"Indeed, the new rules represent exactly the wrong approach to address the so-called “revolving door” of the Labor leadership. These rules protect an unsupported, poorly performing, incumbent rather than ensuring that the best person gets chosen and supported for the best reasons: specifically the attachment of the Labor party to the leader’s defined sense of purpose and vice versa."
Ms Gillard says Labor should move on from determining its leader "on the basis of opinion polls, or the number of positive media profiles."
Despite her criticism of the rules, Ms Gillard describes Mr Shorten and Mr Albanese as "two worth candidates".
Ms Gillard has also reflected on her time as prime minister and Labor's electoral defeat at federal election in the opinion piece, writing that a lack of purpose led to Labor's loss at the election.
"Labor comes to opposition having sent the Australian community a very cynical and shallow message about its sense of purpose."
"...No alternate purpose was articulated during the election campaign that made sense to the Australian people. Kevin clearly felt constrained in running on those policies where Labor had won the national conversation, because those policies were associated with me. Yet there was not one truly original new idea to substitute as the lifeblood of the campaign."
Ms Gillard has urged Labor in opposition to make its key task to re-embrace purpose.
"To do that, Labor must ask and answer three questions. First, what of Labor’s record in government does it seek to own and how much does Labor reject? Second, what is kept and what is junked of the promises and attitudes exhibited in the election campaign? Third, how in opposition is purpose refreshed?"
Reflecting on losing the prime ministership, Ms Gillard describes the pain "like a fist, pain so strong you feel it in your guts, your nerve endings".
She reveals that watching the results come in on election night continued the process of grieving.
"I sat alone on election night as the results came in. I wanted it that way. I wanted to just let myself be swept up in it.
"...I know that late at night or at quiet moments in the day feelings of regret, memories that make you shine with pride, a sense of being unfulfilled can overwhelm you. Hours slip by.
"I know that my colleagues are feeling all this now. Those who lost, those who remain.
"We have some grieving to do together.
"But ultimately it has to be grieving for the biggest thing lost, the power to change our nation for the better."
