By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen

Photo: Backing reform calls: Kevin Rudd (AAP: Alan Porritt)

Related Story: ALP needs 'one-strike' policy on corruption: Faulkner

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has backed renewed calls for fundamental reform of the Labor Party, declaring "there's something sick which needs to be healed".

Mr Rudd has repeatedly criticised the "faceless men" within the party who dumped him from the job in 2010, and has called for sweeping changes to how Labor operates.

"It's that closed culture of the faceless factional men which make a whole series of things possible," he told Fairfax radio in Brisbane this morning.

He says it is time for the ALP to "get real" about party reform, and has strongly backed senior Labor senator John Faulkner, who yesterday called for a ban on the "inherently undemocratic" practice of factional bosses binding the votes of parliamentarians.

Joel Fitzgibbon, a powerful figure in federal Labor's right faction, has endorsed the thrust of Senator Faulkner's plan, but suggested the changes could go further so MPs were not even bound by the decisions of caucus.

Such a change would allow MPs or senators to cross the floor without facing expulsion from the party.

"I believe it's time to have a debate about strict caucus discipline," Mr Fitzgibbon told ABC News.

"We probably have the most disciplined regime in the world of any country operating under the Westminster system, and it's time we should have that debate.

"It's almost 20 years since we banned binding votes at the local government level, and in the wake of the New South Wales [corruption] allegations, we should be asking ourselves whether those same principles apply any differently at the state and federal levels of government.

"It is extraordinary that when candidates sign up to run for parliament, they commit to binding themselves with the majority view of the party. That's a big commitment, and that's giving up very substantial rights."

We can't keep talking forever - we must at some point in the near future bite the bullet and embrace some of these reforms.

Chief Government Whip Joel Fitzgibbon

Labor MP Kelvin Thomson, who has found himself in the minority on a number of caucus debates, has said on Twitter this afternoon: "Joel Fitzgibbon is right to say Parliamentary Labor Party members should get more voting freedom."

Factional power

There has been widespread support within Labor for some of the changes suggested by Senator Faulkner, most notably his push to abolish the power of factions.

The co-convenor of Labor's left faction, Senator Doug Cameron, believes the move would help reinvigorate party membership.

"I think the factional situation has got to the stage where the power has been concentrated in a few people, and it's led to less democracy in the party, it's led to decisions being made that probably shouldn't have been made," he told ABC NewsRadio, referring to the decision to dump Mr Rudd.

"I think it's now time for the leadership of the party - I think that's the Prime Minister - the leaders of the state Labor parties, along with the leadership of the affiliated unions and parliamentarians, to sit down and say, 'how can we democratise the party, how can we make membership of the party more relevant?'."

The general secretary of the ALP in New South Wales, Sam Dastyari, has enthusiastically backed the direction of Senator Faulkner's speech, declaring that: "Either we change or we die."

He says the rules of the party need to be updated to limit the power of factions.

"Frankly, this idea that you've got groups of people really within groups of people, where they come to conclusions, come to votes and bind on them, I just don't think is in the principles of the Labor movement," he told AM.

"There should only be one binding group and that group should be the parliamentary caucus. That's a position I've outlined in the past, that's a position I continue to hold."

Several Labor figures today expressed frustration that even when good ideas for party reform were put forward, nothing much seemed to come of them.

"We should be bold and brave and courageous, and have an open debate about all of these issues," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

"We can't keep talking forever - we must at some point in the near future bite the bullet and embrace some of these reforms."

Rudd backs reforms to fix 'sick' ALP - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)