The party should also break the stranglehold of factions on its MPs as well as allowing backbenchers more freedom on parliamentary votes, Canberra MP Andrew Leigh says.

Dr Leigh, the Member for Fraser, says that despite its crunching electoral defeat, the Labor Party must adopt a more positive approach to policy and party structures, despite the pain involved.

His prescription for the party's post-election soul-searching revolves around a ''policy of openness'' that challenges many traditional practices within the ALP.

In a book published on Wednesday, he goes so far as to say any voter could have a say in choosing Labor candidates for elections.

''In selecting candidates, we should aim to follow a process that is as democratic as possible,'' he writes in a chapter for Not Dead Yet – What Future for Labor?

''Where party membership is strong, this means a ballot of rank-and-file members.

''Where membership has dwindled, we should move to a plebiscite of the electorate, conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission.

''Similar rules should govern the selection of Labor's Senate candidates in all states and territories.''

The publication of the book comes as the NSW ALP administrative committee is expected on Wednesday to endorse defeated MP Deborah O'Neill to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former foreign minister Bob Carr.

Former opposition leader Mark Latham is the lead contributor in the book and proposes the ALP limit the power of the factional warlords.

Dr Leigh, who voted for Julia Gillard in the party's pre-election leadership change, says teamwork, not a messiah, will take Labor out of the wilderness and back into government .

''Negativity is in some ways the most predictable strategy for Labor to follow,'' he writes.

''An oppositional approach has been made easier by the changes that have occurred in the media over recent years.

''A major driver of the shift towards shallowness is the rise of television and the decline of newspapers.''

''Opposition for its own sake has delivered short-term electoral success to Mr Abbott but he will have difficulty translating it into a successful strategy for governing.''

Dr Leigh rejects negativity or a ''closed Australia'' as the best way forward for the Labor Party.

Advocating the policy of openness, the non-aligned MP says new Labor backbenchers should have the freedom not to join a faction.

''Naturally, this has implications for the power of unions in the ALP,'' he says.

''Ours is a party formed out of the union movement but that doesn't mean that the relationship between our industrial and political wings needs to remain as it was a century ago.

''A policy of openness could also involve providing more flexibility to Labor parliamentarians on how we vote in parliament.

''At present, a Labor representative who crosses the floor faces expulsion except if the issue is a so-called conscience vote.

''In practice, issues of 'conscience' are really those with religious overtones.

''Adopting a more flexible caucus voting system would acknowledge that the main differences within the Labor Party caucus are not based on religion (which is what the current conscience votes reflect).

''Openness may be the right road for Labor, but it is not the easy one.

''After losing government to what Anthony Albanese has tagged 'the Noalition,' it will be painful for Labor in opposition to adopt a more positive approach.''