Labor must renew: Gillard

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has urged Labor MPs to shrug off the past and renew the party as she prepares to govern over the first hung parliament in Australia in 70 years.

The prime minister has promised a "serious review" of last month's election, in which Labor lost 16 seats and the coalition fell tantalisingly short of victory.

The Liberal Party also met in Canberra on Thursday, with Opposition Leader Tony Abbott all but claiming a virtual election victory and telling MPs to continue to work as a united team over the next three years.

Ms Gillard addressed a diminished caucus for the first time since the August 21 poll, calling on her MPs to "build on the future, not dwell on the past" and urging them to heed a message from the electorate to "renew our sense of purpose".

Labor was the party of working people and courage when it came to major economic reform, the party of fairness, and the "navigators of the future", she said.

The rallying cry comes amid lingering uncertainty over the exact make-up of the parliament, to be recalled on September 28.

As of Thursday afternoon, key independent Rob Oakeshott had yet to decide whether to accept Ms Gillard's offer of a ministry dedicated to regional Australia but said he hoped to make an announcement on Friday.

Ms Gillard must also look at forming her new frontbench team, with former prime minister Kevin Rudd expected to take up foreign affairs after a deal struck during the campaign.

It is understood Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has been offered his choice of any other senior position, excluding treasurer, in exchange for making way for Mr Rudd.

After arriving to a standing ovation, Ms Gillard called on Labor MPs to better articulate "what we stood for" in the 21st century and not to be so driven by the news cycle.

She promised a more-inclusive caucus where MPs could raise issues in an "open and frank" manner.

But, Ms Gillard warned, it was crucial the party be more disciplined, pointing to the series of leaks that were so damaging before and during the election campaign.

Comments should be made "in the room rather than outside," she said.

One MP told the meeting a more "open" partyroom should also mean more respect paid to Westminster traditions of loyalty to the leader, in what was clearly a criticism of the way in which Mr Rudd was axed in June.

The outspoken MP said that if the executive of the party had issues with the leader, those issues should first be raised with the leadership team before getting out of hand.

With Labor having secured a minority government only by clinching deals with the Australian Greens and three independents, Ms Gillard has also promised a "serious review" of the election result and the "future direction of the party".

The pledge to reshape the party comes after an election which almost saw the demise of a first-term government for the first time since 1931.

Earlier, a triumphant-sounding Mr Abbott addressed Liberal MPs for the first time since the election, praising the arrival in the parliament of its youngest ever member, Wyatt Roy, and the first indigenous person to be elected to the lower house, Ken Wyatt.

"Team, team, there are a lot more of you now than there were just a few weeks ago," Mr Abbott said.

"We have not become a government, but we have made our country proud of the Liberal and the National parties."

"This is a great team," he said.

"It's a band of brothers and sisters."

He gave special mention to John Alexander, who took Bennelong back for the Liberals after the seat held by former prime minister John Howard was lost to Labor in the 2007 election.

"Perhaps the deepest heartbreak of the 2007 election was losing the seat of Bennelong. Well, that wrong has been righted," Mr Abbott said.