Acting Labor leader Chris Bowen has denied that former PM Kevin Rudd undermined his successor, Julia Gillard, arguing the member for Griffith always behaved ''professionally'' and in the best interests of the Labor Party.

Mr Bowen's comments come the day after former prime minister Julia Gillard took a thinly veiled swipe at Mr Rudd, when explaining the difference between her taking Mr Rudd's job in 2010 and him taking it back in 2013.

''To ask your leader to have a leadership ballot, that's legitimate, to do things continuously that undermine the Labor Party and the Labor government, then of course that shouldn't be done by anyone,'' she told an audience at the Opera House on Monday night.