''The preselectors have had their say,'' he said yesterday.

His office could not say last night if he had contacted Ms Neal or Deborah O'Neill, the new Labor candidate for the marginal seat of Robertson on the NSW Central Coast.

However one of his ministers, Nicola Roxon, said the defeat was a lesson to all politicians.

''All of us as politicians are always acutely aware that we are answerable to the public, we're answerable to our party, we're answerable to local preselectors that's the rules that we live and die by and obviously that's what's happened to Belinda.''

Ms Neal gained only 67 votes from the 169 party members who chose the Labor candidate on Saturday for the next election.

She has been involved in a string of rows including ''Iguanagate'', in June 2008, when she and her husband, NSW MP John Della Bosca, were accused of bullying staff at a Gosford restaurant.

Mr Rudd ordered Ms Neal into anger management after the incident but last month she disputed this, saying she had received only ''counselling''.

Ms O'Neill, a lecturer at the University of Newcastle, began campaigning yesterday in the seat, which Labor holds with a margin of only 0.1per cent. She suggested Mr Rudd would visit the seat.

For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times