Rudd takes knife to spills Kevin Rudd has used his renewed authority to order historic changes to Labor rules to ensure no sitting prime minister can ever again be removed by the party's "faceless men" as he was in 2010. The changes would see the direct election of the ALP leader by a combination of rank and file ballot and caucus, as well as other preconditions, making hostile leadership changes all but impossible. The move, which Mr Rudd has used to declare a major membership drive for his party, has taken key players in the ALP by surprise, with NSW state secretary Sam Dastyari admitting he had no warning of the bombshell, which had left him "flabbergasted." Winners are grinners: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. I don't know what to make of this yet. This was tightly-kept within the parliamentary leadership. The organisation was not in the loop on this. The changes appear to go further even than those advocated by the party's elder statesmen, Steve Bracks, John Faulkner and Bob Carr. It is understood Mr Rudd honed the package on Sunday night with his leadership circle - Deputy Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, a long-term backer of greater democracy, Treasurer Chris Bowen, Leader of the Senate Penny Wong, her deputy Jacinta Collins, and Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten. Arguing that the Australian people wanted to know they would retain the prime minister they elected, Mr Rudd announced the package late on Monday evening following a full ministry and subsequent cabinet meeting. It comes just days after he ordered a federal intervention into the scandal-plagued NSW branch, and within a fortnight of his own bruising but successful coup over Ms Gillard, which he won by 57 votes to 45. That followed a long internal campaign of destabilisation by his supporters. Under his new rules, that campaign would have been impossible. "Today, more than ever, Australians want to know that the prime minister they elect is the prime minister they get," he said. The Australian public requires that certainty - these changes will give them that certainty. Candidates for the leadership would not be eligible to stand unless they could demonstrate 20 per cent support from the caucus. Mr Rudd said he had consulted "heaps of people" in designing the changes, which must now go to a special gathering of the Labor caucus set for Monday, July 22. However it it considered extremely unlikely that the Prime Minister would be rebuffed in the shadow of an election. Under the reform plan, which overturns more than a century of unchallenged authority by the Parliamentary Labor Party, the leader would be chosen half by direct election involving all rank and file Labor party members, and half by the caucus. The rank and file ballot would be open to all party members and would take 30 days to conduct - a mechanism presently used to elect Labor's national president. While the plan is designed to provide stability and end Labor's leadership "revolving door," the position would be automatically declared vacant following an election at which the party was not able to form government. In other changes, the frontbench team would once again be selected by way of election by members of Labor's federal parliamentary caucus, restoring a long-established process which Mr Rudd himself had discontinued early in his first term as prime minister. "It's time to throw open the windows of the Labor party structure to the wider community through our membership," he said. He said the changes reflected a public clamour for greater transparency and for greater involvement in the conduct of national politics, and he challenged the Liberal Party to consider its own rules in response. The proposals would ensure a sitting Labor leader could not be removed by force unless there was an overwhelming three quarters of the party room demanding the leader go - a level of support which has never existed in the entire history of the ALP. In February 2012, Julia Gillard came closest to achieving that support, and that was as a sitting prime minister, when she defeated Mr Rudd by 71 votes to 31. The Left faction of the ALP has been pushing for direct elections of the leader for some time. Rudd's Rules If a leader wins an election they remain leader for the duration of the term, except if the leader resigns, requests a leadership election or if 75 per cent of caucus members sign a petition calling for a leadership election "on the grounds that the current leader has brought the party into disrepute." Votes in election of leader to be apportioned equally between the party membership and the caucus. Candidates must be nominated by 20 per cent of caucus. Election for leader to automatically occur following an election loss. Only caucus members elect deputy leader, Senate leader and Senate deputy leader. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called a special caucus meeting for July 22 to vote on the proposed reforms. If caucus does not support them, Mr Rudd will seek a special rules' conference for the Labor Party. Dan Harrison