Kevin Rudd says Malcolm Turnbull will be "smashed" at the next election by Bill Shorten and has called on the Prime Minister to save face and quit now, saying he's become a "bad joke" who stands for nothing other than his own ego.

In a blistering address to a fundraiser in Sydney for Labor frontbencher and one-time leadership candidate Anthony Albanese, to mark ten years since the Ruddslide swept Labor to power, Mr Rudd warned that while winning government is a "hard thing," "keeping government for the Australian Labor party is even harder".

He blamed this on a "great trifecta" benefiting the Liberals, claiming: the politics of hope are harder than the politics of fear, the conservatives have more money, and that the Australian media landscape is dominated by Rupert Murdoch.

"So when Turnbull is smashed at the next election, and he will be, let us understand that holding the reins of government as a progressive political party in Australia is a precious thing, to be nurtured carefully, not to be thrown away lightly through petty personal ambition, and then for government be deployed to the absolute full in the prosecution of a reformist agenda to secure the nation's future," he said.