Saying he was sick of being told Labor couldn't win this year's election, he urged his audience to be confident of victory at the September poll. About 250 party supporters paid $260 each to attend a dinner last Monday night in Le Sands restaurant at Brighton-Le-Sands in Sydney. The event was organised as a campaign fund-raiser for Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese. The gathering was made up of party members, unionists and Labor-friendly business leaders. When contacted by Fairfax Media, Mr Combet's office provided a rundown of the speech and stressed it was a positive call to action. However, the rundown did not include the criticisms of those inside the party, which were confirmed independently by several people who were at the dinner. Mr Combet was given the opportunity to deny making the remarks, but declined to do so. In the address, Mr Combet outlined a long list of economic and social initiatives the government was proud of and said it was frustrating more people did not recognise the achievements.

He said anyone who thought Labor had lost its way should be better instructed about what had been done and have it pointed out to them that the achievements were ''Labor through and through''. ''All of them have taken years of struggle to achieve, and it will take a big fight to defend them from the Coalition,'' he said. According to some in attendance at the dinner, Mr Combet grabbed the audience's attention with a few swear words and then kept it with a passionate plea to get behind the government. One attendee said the minister could have titled his address ''The Two Things that Bother Me''. ''He dropped the F-word and said quite forcefully that there were two things that were really starting to bug him,'' the contact said.

''Those two things were people saying Labor doesn't know what it stands for and that the election is all over. And it's worse when it is Labor people saying that.'' Some government figures suggested Mr Combet's speech was the start of a deliberate strategy to energise Labor's support base. Another member of the audience said it was clear Mr Combet was angry and even despondent at how some in the party were being distracted by continual poor polling results. ''It is pretty obvious the party is at a low ebb, and this address, while entertaining, had an air of desperation about it,'' the Labor insider said. But another said the address was a rallying call that many in the party needed to hear.

''It was a great speech and really rousing, but there was a lot of stuff in there Greg wouldn't want out in the general public,'' the contact said. ''He was talking to an audience of insiders and believers and he was telling us to buck up, stop whining and stop being defeatist.'' Other government sources said his speech was indicative of a mood change within Labor that was resulting in MPs being more upbeat and determined about this year's election. ''There has been a sudden and recent culture change and the mantra very strongly now is we're in this to win it,'' one said. Follow the National Times on Twitter