ALLIES of Kevin Rudd are telling colleagues he is ready to forgive and forget if offered back the ALP leadership.

Senior Government sources say a small group of MPs, who backed Mr Rudd in last year's coup, are trying to convince their colleagues that there will be no retribution if he is returned to the Lodge.

As the 100th asylum seeker boat on Julia Gillard's watch sailed into Australia yesterday, Mr Rudd's backers vowed he was "no longer autocratic" and had eaten humble pie. They claimed he had learnt from his mistakes.

One minister, who confirmed he had heard such statements, said no one should be fooled.

"Rudd must think we all have the memories of goldfish," he said.

As leadership tension increases, Ms Gillard has moved forward a scheduled Tuesday caucus meeting by a day to deal with the Malaysia deal fallout.

However, the PM will come face to face with angry internal party critics who want hopeful refugees processed on Australian soil if Cabinet opts to forge ahead with processing asylum claims offshore, adding further fuel to party bickering.

Rudd supporters - understood mainly to be from the Victorian Left and breakaway elements within the national Right - are trying to capitalise on the anxiety in the party room.

"There is no move on. Everyone knows that," one senior MP and staunch Gillard ally said.

"People considered close to him are certainly telling people around the place that Rudd is a changed man. It is also being said that he has learnt from the past, that he is much less autocratic now and that all is forgiven."

Another senior Labor MP confirmed he had been told the same thing.

"They are trying to win over others with the promise that he has somehow changed and there would be no jihad against those who knifed him," a senior Labor MP said.

Another senior figure in the Government said no one in Cabinet believed Mr Rudd actively was involved in the latest leadership antics.

Mr Rudd is recovering from heart surgery and is not expected to be back in Parliament until next month.

"I don't think he is involved, he is just sitting back hoping that we will get so desperate that we will one day plead with him to come back," another senior MP said.

A friend of Defence Minister Stephen Smith, whose name also has been offered up as a possible leadership alternative, said Mr Smith had no intention of doing anything but sticking by Ms Gillard.

"What they are doing is starting up rumours about Smith as a way to get the debate going over the leadership - then they insert Rudd into the middle of it," the friend said.

Other Labor sources have suggested former PM Bob Hawke privately may have been behind a push for Trade Minister Simon Crean. Mr Rudd could not be contacted yesterday.