Federal Labor leadership aspirants Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese say the party should stand up for the accomplishments of the Gillard government.
Mr Shorten and Mr Albanese were taking part in a debate in Melbourne on Friday as ALP grassroots members continue to vote in an historic ballot for the parliamentary leadership which opened on Tuesday.
Both contenders were asked about their views on former prime minister Julia Gillard's policy legacy.
"Will we stand up for what Julia Gillard accomplished? Yes we will," Mr Shorten said.
He said he had received a text message from Ms Gillard pointing out "stupid stuff" about her in a newspaper report.
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"We will defend her legacy and indeed that is what the last election was about," Mr Shorten said.
He says the price on carbon, the national broadband network, national disability insurance scheme and improved workplace right of entry laws are worth defending.
Mr Albanese says the party needs to defend the legacies of both Ms Gillard and Kevin Rudd.
"I believe we have a very good record primarily on the economy under both Kevin and Julia," Mr Albanese said.
He says the 600 pieces of legislation passed by the minority parliament under Ms Gillard are a strong legacy.
"We pushed forward with reform and she will be treated very kindly by history indeed and she deserves to be so," Mr Albanese said.
The pair were asked if they had the "guts" to show compassion to refugees, prompting Mr Shorten to say Labor needed to be "stronger and braver" on the issue.
"We need to make it clear that on one hand, whilst we don't support people smugglers ... we don't support people drowning at sea," Mr Shorten said.
"What we also do is we support having more refugees, we support being good international citizens with the UN, we support engaging in our region to make sure that refugees wherever they are, are treated properly.
"We can win this argument by stating who we are and not getting blown off course by the day-in-day-out opinion polls. We need to be stronger and braver."
Mr Albanese said Labor must be prepared to argue the party's commitment to refugees and to the United Nations refugee conventions.
"We have to be prepared, as difficult as the politics of it may be ... to argue the case that people deserve to be treated with compassion," he said.
"We need also ... to acknowledge as well that there is nothing compassionate about people drowning at sea. We need to address the reality of what is going on with the people smugglers."
