Labor leadership contenders Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten are apparently sparring over loyalty as a battle erupts in the NSW branch of the ALP over a likely senate vacancy.
Mr Albanese and Mr Shorten are travelling the country in a bid to win over grassroots ALP members who will for the first time get a 50 per cent say in a ballot to elect the federal parliamentary leader.
Former deputy prime minister Mr Albanese told supporters in Brisbane he had never engaged in "internal shenanigans" and had been loyal to prime ministers Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
The comments were interpreted as a dig at Mr Shorten, who was a key figure in the June 2010 coup against Mr Rudd before switching support from Ms Gillard back to Mr Rudd three years later.
Mr Shorten noted Mr Albanese had also been a "very keen" supporter of Mr Rudd.
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"And I respect him for it," he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
"But when it comes to building unity in the future, we need to get beyond the sledging, the disharmony.
"Everyone knows it doesn't matter if you are a football team, a netball team, or indeed a political party. If you can't govern yourselves, then Australians will mark you down."
As Mr Shorten called for unity, tensions in the NSW ALP branch were revealed after Australian Workers Union general secretary Paul Howes ruling himself out of a tilt at a Senate vacancy likely to be triggered by former foreign minister Bob Carr's retirement.
Conservative elements of the ALP Right faction, who oppose same-sex marriage, are pushing for former Labor MP Deb O'Neill, who lost her seat of Robertson at the election.
Other sections of the Right were backing Mr Howes, who supports gay marriage but says he does not want to divide the party.
"I don't want to have the branch of the party here in NSW and our movement rip itself apart over me," he said in Sydney.
"When you've gone through what we've been through in the last six years, you recognise how destructive, how damaging, how distracting this type of politics is."
Senator Carr's senior adviser, Graeme Wedderburn, has told senior NSW ALP members he is keen to fill the vacancy. Another contender is United Voice union official Tara Moriarty.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Labor needed to learn voters don't want "faceless men" running the ALP or taking positions in parliament.
"It seems to me the Labor party is very much in denial about the fact they have just had a thumping defeat," Mr Abbott said.
When it comes to the leadership, Mr Shorten, from the ALP Right faction, is expected to narrowly win the caucus vote, but Mr Albanese, from the Left, appears to have edge amongst grassroots members.
The ballot opens next Tuesday and closes on October 9, before a caucus meeting on October 10 and the declaration of the winner on October 13.
