Labor MP Nick Champion has resigned his position as caucus secretary so he can back Kevin Rudd in the looming Labor leadership ballot.
The South Australian MP said on Friday that Prime Minister Julia Gillard was a very good person and a great legislator but he did not think she could win the next election.
"I've resolved to support Kevin Rudd," he told ABC television.
"I do think Kevin Rudd is best placed to win the confidence of the people."
Mr Champion said that upon arriving at his office this morning he had found a receipt stuck to his window with a message scrawled on it: "Put Kevin Rudd back as PM. People voted for him."
He said he believed that was a strong message.
"What the party's got to decide is whether it chooses a leader for itself or whether it chooses a leader for the country."
In the meantime, caucus members should be more careful about their public commentary and moderate their attacks on each other, Mr Champion said.
RUDD CALLED WINDSOR
Independent MP Tony Windsor says he refused to talk to Kevin Rudd when he called him after resigning as foreign minister.
"Kevin Rudd did ring me the night, I think it was the night before last," Mr Windsor told reporters in Sydney.
"He wanted a bit of a chat and I wasn't rude to him but I cut the conversation short.
"I didn't want to get into what I thought he wanted to talk about so we agreed not to talk about.
"I'm not getting into (what he said) but we didn't say too much at all."
Mr Windsor said he was yet to speak with Prime Minister Julia Gillard about Monday's ballot.
"I haven't spoken to the prime minister (about the leadership challenge)."
Mr Windsor said he wasn't planning to have any other conversations about the matter with either party.
"They'll sort this out on Monday I imagine, and by Wednesday there'll be some other story," he said.
Mr Windsor, one of the group of independents whose support allows the minority Labor government to remain in power, again said all bets were off if the leadership went to Kevin Rudd.
"My guess is for what it's worth that the prime minister will be the prime minister next week," he said.
"If she's not for some reason all bets are off on terms of my agreement."
RUDD 'HAS RUNS ON THE BOARD'
Kevin Rudd supporter and government whip Ed Husic says Mr Rudd has the runs on the board to lead Labor through difficult times.
Mr Husic, a NSW Labor MP elected at the 2010 election, said Mr Rudd led a team through the global financial crisis, one of the most difficult economic periods facing Australia in 75 years.
"He has got the runs on the board in terms of being able to bring a team together and see their way through those times," he told Sky News on Friday.
Mr Husic said he had been thinking about how Labor was travelling and about the new generation of Labor MPs now just establishing themselves.
He said he was concerned about ensuring those MPs keep their seats.
"If Kevin Rudd decides to stand, then I'll be voting for him because I think he's got the leadership capability and the expertise and the experience, but also importantly being able to connect and communicate with voters," he said.
Mr Husic said for many months Labor's primary vote had been bouncing along in the low 30s.
He said he couldn't see any plan anyone had pointed out to lift Labor's level of public support.
"My concern is we haven't been able to find the answers to rectify the situation that we are in," he said.
"We have racked up a number of big achievements in a short space of time but it hasn't translated in terms of popular support."
'RUDD WANTED REFERENDUM ON HEALTH'
Former health minister Nicola Roxon says that as prime minister Kevin Rudd wanted to hold a referendum on a federal takeover of the health system at the same time as the 2010 election.
Ms Roxon said on Friday that Mr Rudd had been advised the referendum wouldn't succeed but nevertheless "thought it would be a good tool to be able to win the election".
"(Mr Rudd) sat there with Karl Bitar (then national secretary of the ALP) and everybody else to say `Look, this is a really popular thing to do, we would win the election,'" Ms Roxon (who is now the attorney-general) told Sky News.
"I said, `Yeah, but we wouldn't win the referendum. Look at the history of referendums. The states do not agree with us; the campaign would be very heavily opposed to us'."
Ms Roxon also rejected Mr Rudd's assertion on Friday that the watered down health reform deal that was eventually struck between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the states did not go through a proper cabinet process.
"This is just a complete joke and it's such a joke because we went through a very detailed health reform process with Kevin as prime minister and we were able to progress an enormous amount of things that he should be proud of and I am proud of as well," Ms Roxon said.
"But many of those things, including the biggest proposals that Kevin wanted to act on, he wanted with four days notice on one occasion that I can recollect, to take over the entire health system, didn't have any materials for cabinet, didn't have legal advice."
Ms Roxon said that was a "ludicrous" way to run a government.
"We didn't do that, because we were able to talk Kevin into some sense."
