Labor leadership hopefuls Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese want voters to believe the ALP has absorbed the message sent by voters at the federal election.
They both agree the federal party must get over its messiah complex and that the era of the factional overlords is over.
Heeding the lessons from its September 7 drubbing will be crucial to Labor's rebuilding process, and its potential to unseat the coalition government in three years time.
Twice in three years Labor has fallen into the trap of hurriedly replacing the parliamentary leader in an attempt to resurrect its standing in the opinion polls.
The tactic failed.
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In 2010, then-prime minister Kevin Rudd was deposed by deputy Julia Gillard under a party plan to increase its hopes of retaining government.
She was successful, but the result was a minority government that was forced to bow to the demands of the Australian Greens and some independents MPs for a carbon tax - which will now be abolished under the new government.
In June, with Gillard leading Labor to potential oblivion, many MPs turned to Rudd to save them.
One of the key figures behind both leadership coups, Bill Shorten, now aspires to be opposition leader following an historic ballot of caucus and grassroots members that should stop history from repeating itself.
"The era of Labor messiahs must come to a close," Shorten told a forum in Melbourne this week.
The Right faction powerbroker, whose support base lies in the Australian Workers Union which he led before entering parliament, also insists the era of factions is over.
If elected leader, he won't attend faction meetings and wants an end to "small cabals of people making decisions for all".
Leadership rival Anthony Albanese, who hails from the Left and has been intimately involved in NSW branch factional wheeling and dealing, is of a similar mind.
"The Labor party needs to move beyond narrow factions, it needs to open up, just as society has opened up," he says.
"People are demanding greater participation."
The Labor leadership ballot, the result of which will be revealed on October 13, is a sign of a new era of democracy within the party.
Discussion of recruiting more women and indigenous people into safe seats, community-based preselections, new ways to develop policy and party branch meetings using social media is also worthy.
But there are signs that lessons have not been learned.
Liberal director Brian Loughnane says the ballot is a "pantomime" and the problems of division and leader rivalry which dogged Labor in government are following the party into opposition.
Most of the Left has swung behind Albanese, with key MPs and union leaders from that faction either publicly stating their support or working behind the scenes to win votes for their man.
Shorten is benefiting from the work of the Right faction's numbers men, including former NSW branch secretary Sam Dastyari and David Feeney.
Dastyari's numerical talents were rewarded with him taking up a Senate spot in NSW vacated by another former NSW branch secretary Matt Thistlethwaite, who retired from the upper house to run in and win the lower house seat of Kingsford Smith at the election.
The imminent but not-yet-announced retirement of former foreign minister Bob Carr has also triggered an unseemly battle between and within factions for his Senate seat.
"It is clear that Labor has learned nothing," says Loughnane.
"Whoever becomes Labor leader, they will still be beholden to the unions, the factions, the faceless men and the bitter personal divisions that paralysed the previous parliament."
While Kevin Rudd himself has renounced any return to the leadership, some Labor members believe his continuing presence in the parliament over the coming term could add to instability.
Shorten and Albanese, who have been factional players since their teen years, say Labor must learn from the mistakes of the past.
But in order to do this, the party will need to move beyond the personality fiefdoms of the factional past to organise around sound ideas for the nation's future and broaden its base of supporters.
