ALP will pay for leadership issues: MPs Federal Labor's latest bout of leadership tension has got at least one independent MP worried it could lead to an earlier election. NSW crossbench MP Tony Windsor, who faces a serious challenge in his New England seat from high profile Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce, agrees the ALP will "pay the penalty" for the instability, despite having delivered "monumental" policy reforms. "Most of their issues in this parliament have been self-inflicted," he told AAP on Tuesday. The issues dealt with in the parliament have been fairly monumental ... an extraordinary amount has got done. But the politics have focused on the internal Rudd-Gillard stuff, so they will pay the penalty for that. Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Tuesday brushed off talk of a possible leadership change to Kevin Rudd, maintaining she was the right person to lead the party to the September 14 election. But Labor MPs are fretting about the potential for massive seat losses, which could reduce the now 71-seat party to a 30-40 seat rump in the federal parliament. Mr Windsor, who backed Ms Gillard into minority government after the 2010 election, said if there was a change of Labor leader "all bets are off." "If they want to play their games then I'm in a different sandpit," he added. And if circumstances combined to lead to an earlier election, Mr Windsor would consider it a breach of promise by both Labor and the coalition. "The understanding with Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, when we were working with him (after the tied August 2010 election), is that parliament would sit for three years and we could write the date of the election," Mr Windsor said. Fellow independent Andrew Wilkie, whose own support deal with Labor fell apart after it reneged on wholesale gaming reforms, says it needs to get back to work. "My only concern now is that the ALP remains preoccupied with the leadership whereas they need to get over it and get back to work," he told AAP. That's their job and that's what they're paid to do. However, Mr Windsor noted Labor's leadership issue came around as often as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's so far unfulfilled threat to pursue a no-confidence motion against the government in parliament. "It's like a bicycle wheel that comes around every few weeks," he said.