Sometimes a captain's pick can be justified if the candidate brings something special - like policy strength on manufacturing and trade. Beattie's economic record leading Queensland was strong, albeit marred by profligacy. But above all Labor will benefit from his reformist zeal.

Beattie has been, like Rudd, a party outsider pushing to empower the grassroots, break down factions and build a modern progressive party unshackled from union dominance. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott calls Beattie a celebrity blow-in and a threat to Rudd's leadership. But Beattie will erode the Coalition's hopes in Queensland and his ideas for reforming Labor will be much needed.

A month ago Beattie told Rudd to come clean and fix the party rules, a bit like he did 12 years ago after the Shepherdson inquiry found three of his MPs guilty of various rorts. "The Labor Party that I joined and I love does not support crooks,'' Beattie said then - and won the following election in a landslide. Rudd would dream of doing that but his stance on Dastyari is a bad look.

To his credit Rudd made party reform his first priority when returning to the leadership. Dastyari has been working to implement it while insisting he is a reformer. "People in my position should not be able to exercise the kind of power that we've been able to exercise," Dastyari has said. Yet the party machine picks him for the Senate, where everyone knows candidates for the major parties who secure top spots on the ticket are shoo-ins. By contrast, independents or minor party candidates for the Senate actually have to campaign and prove their worth.

Dastyari is smart. He has also pursued Rudd's reforms in NSW to reduce the power of factions, root out corruption, allow judicial appeals to head office decisions and ban property developers from membership. But while some power has been ceded, the all-powerful administrative committee will still be controlled by union delegates and party hacks.