Labor Party leader candidate Anthony Albanese in his seat of Marrickville. WHETHER he wins or loses when the result of Labor's two-track leadership election is announced tomorrow, Anthony Albanese has accomplished something important simply by contesting. Had Bill Shorten been unopposed, the idea of allowing ordinary ALP branch members to vote on the leadership would almost certainly have been strangled at birth. Factional powerbrokers and union heavies would have quietly rescinded the new rules that Kevin Rudd introduced after returning to the prime ministership in June. "That was a key reason for Albo's decision to run," a Labor MP said today. He wanted to make sure the reform survives. Labor's so-called "faceless men" loathe the idea of democratising the party. It makes things untidy, hard to control and that goes against every fibre of their being. But now that the system has been seen in operation and the party faithful have been given a taste of participatory democracy, dismantling it will be nigh on impossible. The Rudd model - one ballot for MPs and another for the rank and file, with the results weighted and combined at the end - has proved popular in the ALP. At a time when gloom and doom should have been the order of the day, the chance to play a role in choosing the leader gave Labor people something to enthuse about. And any downside has been minor. There is some concern that Tony Abbott and the new Coalition Government got an easy start with no Opposition leader in place. In fact, though, Chris Bowen has done a competent job as acting leader. And Oppositions are always pretty irrelevant on the weeks following a change of government anyway - worried more about reasons for their defeat than what the new government is up to. Education Minister Christopher Pyne, like a number of other senior Liberals, has sneered at the Shorten-Albanese contest for the hearts and minds of ordinary ALP members. Just another example of Labor "talking about themselves," he says. But Pyne himself has made the case for rank-and-file election of party leaders even more effectively than Rudd did in introducing the change. In The Australasian Parliamentary Review in 2009, Pyne argued that all Liberal Party members should be given the opportunity to vote for the party leader "to re-engage and reactivate our membership base." Echoing views he had expressed earlier in a speech to the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, he pointed out that this was already done by political parties in Britain, France, Canada and Israel. "Candidates for the leadership of the party would have to prove their mettle in the glare of national media and they would have to show their energy and capacity to handle a national campaign," Pyne wrote. The mere activity of running for party leader would ensure that the person elected would be engaged in a way neither main political party has demanded. Pyne quoted international research suggesting that "selection by a broad base of party members or party supporters is more likely to discover and support a gifted, charismatic politician who would also appeal to the broader public." He added: "When the decision is left to party insiders, MPs and factional leaders playing kingmakers in the back rooms of Parliament House or Sussex Street, they are likely to select candidates based on other factors that are less important to the public at large." Whether Shorten or Albanese is particularly gifted or charismatic might be open to debate, but the need to win support from ALP members across the nation has given them a chance to demonstrate - and develop - their campaigning skills. And the rank and file vote will provide an indication of the kind of leader Australians might be attracted to in the current climate. Do they want a smooth, well-spoken, obviously clever person like Shorten, or are they over that style, thanks to Kevin Rudd? Are they likely to be put off by Albanese's rough edges, or do they see him as "real" and "authentic" as a consequence of his lack of polish? ALP membership has increased by about 4000 - nearly 10 per cent - in the month since Shorten and Albinese started wooing the rank and file. Journalists attending forums and other functions where the rival candidates presented their wares have noted how engaged with the process party members are. It is not perfect. The Right, in particular, enforced factional discipline in the Caucus section of the ballot. But it is a start. Allowing rank and file ballots for the selection of senate candidates - to reduce the number of factional and union hacks on the Labor benches in that chamber - would be a logical next step. It all adds value to party membership. And, to quote Pyne again: "A larger, more engaged membership will lead to a greater more diverse policy engine room, and a more substantial troupe of spokespeople in the broader community." His column appears every Saturday in the Herald Sun.