Pull your heads in, Rudd tells colleagues Labor MPs should "pull their heads in" and focus on Tony Abbott, former prime minister Kevin Rudd has said after a break out of ill-discipline in the ranks following another dire opinion poll for the government. In a rare doorstop appearance on his way into Parliament house on Wednesday, Mr Rudd admonished his colleagues with this line: "I think it's time everyone, and I mean everyone, just pulled their heads in." Resigned: Kevin Rudd and Joel Fitzgibbon discuss a point during Question Time. Instead, he said they should get on with the business of making sure Mr Abbott did not become prime minister. Mr Rudd's advice was echoed by cabinet minister Stephen Conroy, one of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's staunchest allies, who warned Labor would be "marked down hard" if it continued to indulge in navel gazing. The latest polls pointing to a huge loss for Labor on September 14 has been met with a line of MPs lecturing the leadership and expressing contempt for the lines they have been instructed to use. The frankness started with Rudd supporter and former whip Joel Fitzgibbon, who ridiculed the "talking points" handed to MPs as he laughed on breakfast TV on Tuesday about the government's fate. Mr Fitzgibbon sought to clarify his comments in an interview with Fairfax Media on Wednesday morning, sayng that his mockery was a critique of "politics generally" in a "new era of spin." "I was taking the mickey out of myself," Mr Fitzgibbon said. I was talking about all politicians and I thought humour was a good way of addressing it. Mr Fitzgibbon said the reaction to his comments had been mixed: "To those who didn't think it was all that funny, I apologise." I was making the point that for whatever reason a very good government is not punching through on its message. On Wednesday morning, Left Senator Doug Cameron echoed Mr Fitzgibbon's criticism of talking points, saying he had no use for cheat sheets prepared by "some kid" in the Prime Minister's Office. He told Fairfax Media's Breaking Politics program that he thought Mr Fitzgibbon's comments were "pretty funny actually." It was a bit of colour and movement. You have to have a sense of humour in this place otherwise you'd go mad, he said. He also gave some advice to Ms Gillard: "The PM is a very, very good politician. She is very talented. She should just let her natural talents take over. Forget the spin, forget people telling you what you should say. Just be yourself. And NSW western Sydney MP Laurie Ferguson said Labor was "dead" in the area unless it could counter the Coalition's "stop the boats" slogan. Ms Gillard was also forced to deny in Parliament on Tuesday a media report that Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr had asked her to quit as Labor leader. "That report is entirely untrue," the Prime Minister said. In a statement issued on Tuesday night, Senator Carr said he had never approached Ms Gillard over leadership issues. Mr Fitzgibbon said on Tuesday that he doubted the accuracy of reports that Senator Carr had told the Prime Minister to stand aside. He said the leadership issue was "done and dusted." "I took the view that the party might have a better chance at the next election if we'd chosen a new direction," he said. I'm not going to dwell on it. As the Opposition Leader reminded his charges to maintain their discipline and to take nothing for granted, despondent Labor MPs met in Canberra on Tuesday for one of the last remaining caucus meetings this term, weighed down by a Newspoll putting them 16 points behind the Coalition on 42 per cent to 58 per cent. Another poll showed Labor's vote in the supposedly safe Melbourne seat of Isaacs, held by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, collapsing. Ms Gillard was told in caucus that Labor must do more to expose the Coalition's asylum seeker policy as undeliverable given the complexities of dealing with Indonesia, Malaysia, and the extent of the people-smuggling trade. Mr Ferguson expanded publicly on the issue on Tuesday night, telling ABC's 7.30 that it was not just "racist rednecks" who were concerned with asylum boats. "These are Muslims, these are Buddhists, these are people from Malaysia, these are people from Bangladesh who convey this to me," he said. He said Labor had not successfully explained to the electorate how difficult it was to manage refugee policies. Mr Ferguson, who holds the seat of Werriwa by less than 7 per cent, is one of a slew of MPs - some of them seen as potential future leaders - facing defeat based on current polling. He said on Tuesday night that despite the bad polls, Ms Gillard was the best person to lead Labor into the September election, particularly on the area of asylum seekers. "I think that Julia Gillard is one person that people know she's a tough nut," he said. Mr Rudd also sought more information. South Australian backbencher Nick Champion went the other way, calling for the 457 scheme to be initially capped and then scrapped. He said it left workers beholden to employers for fear of being left visa-less, and was therefore more akin to a "guest-worker" program. In other outbreaks of frankness: Senator Cameron complained that a promised lift in the government's standing with voters under Ms Gillard had not materialised'; and Queensland MP Graham Perrett also resorted to humour to explain why they were now stuck with the leadership of Ms Gillard: "If my aunt had testicles she'd be my uncle, wouldn't she." with James Robertson and AAP