Labor is stepping up pressure on Prime Minister John Howard to reveal how long he plans to stay in the top job if he wins the upcoming election.
The government is struggling to contain the political damage from criticism of Mr Howard by Treasurer Peter Costello in a new biography on the prime minister.
Labor's treasury spokesman Wayne Swan has called on Mr Howard to spell out his intentions, saying reports he has left open the possibility of stepping down soon after the election, if he wins, "smells of a deal".
"What we want to know from John Howard is: has he done a deal with Peter Costello to go quietly after the election if he wins?" Mr Swan told reporters.
"Kevin Rudd is committed to serving for three years, will John Howard commit to serving for three years?
"Because we know the hatreds are deep, the divisions in the cabinet room are disruptive on government policy formation."
Mr Swan said Mr Howard owes the Australian people an explanation of his post-election intentions.
Finance spokesman Lindsay Tanner said if the government is re-elected the leadership tensions at the top will get out of control.
"If the Howard government gets re-elected it's going to be a total snakepit, it'll be a complete internal free-for-all," Mr Tanner told ABC TV.
"You'll have open warfare in the government.
"For years John Howard has been there in his office with a Rubik's Cube trying to find some combination, some future leadership arrangement that isn't Peter Costello.
"If he gets re-elected, that Rubik's Cube's going to go into meltdown."
Mr Tanner said if the coalition is re-elected, the public won't know who their prime minister will be.
"The Australian people, if they re-elect this government, they won't know who's going to be prime minister at the end of that three-year term," he said.
In the book by Wayne Errington and Peter Van Onselen, Mr Costello is quoted as attacking Mr Howard's record as treasurer in the Fraser government and suggesting Mr Howard may have leaked a memo to politically damage him.
"What this has all exposed is that Peter Costello accepts that it is a big spending, wasteful government, that it's a government that's out of touch, that's effectively past its use-by date," Mr Tanner said.
Labor polling conducted a few days ago also indicates Mr Howard's attraction may be declining among battlers who believe he is too old, desperate and sneaky, News Limited newspapers report.
"The trend away from Howard among soft, formerly Liberal voters is marked and has grown since the last round of focus groups," the papers quote the secret polling as concluding.
The research nominates four key findings: Mr Howard should have retired, he's past his use-by date, he's desperate and he's not keeping up.
Meanwhile, ACTU secretary-elect Jeff Lawrence said the government owes an apology to union leaders and the workers who publicly spoke of their disadvantage under the Work Choices laws.
His call came after revelations in the same biography that cabinet had been warned the controversial industrial relations (IR) laws would leave some workers disadvantaged, but went ahead with them anyway.
"I believe this is a vindication of the position taken by the ACTU and by the trade union movement," Mr Lawrence told the Nine Network.
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