The ALP's national president says she hopes Labor members will re-engage with the party as a result of Kevin Rudd's leadership reforms.
The prime minister's proposals to give grassroots Labor members a 50 per cent say in the selection of the parliamentary party leadership are expected to be backed by caucus at a special meeting in the Sydney suburb of Balmain on Monday.
Under the rule change, an election for leader could be called if a leader resigned or if at least 75 per cent of the members of the caucus signed a petition stating the leader was bringing the party into disrepute.
ALP national president Jenny McAllister says the changes are necessary to turn Labor into a 21st century party.
"What I hope we'll see is a lot of our members and supporters re-engaging with the party," she told the ABC.
She says she expects a discussion about further party reform to continue after the federal election.
But she doesn't think unions will get a role in picking the parliamentary leader, as some union officials have been calling for.
"There are more than a million Australians that get involved in their trade unions and we need to be reaching out to those people," she said.
"There could be a role for trade union members voting in those local preselections."
Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expects there will be some debate about the 75 per cent threshold.
But he says leadership changes shouldn't be done lightly and the reforms would bring greater stability.
"These reforms solve that issue (of speculation and distraction) whilst also being the most significant empowerment of members of any Australian political party in our history," he said.
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