Labor’s internal cohesion is already being tested with backlash over the axing of two senior cabinet ministers, as the prime minister addressed the party’s largest-ever caucus on Friday.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Industry minister Ed Husic have been cut from the 30-person ministry by factional bosses.

Elevated in their place are Victorian right-faction MPs Sam Rae and Daniel Mulino.

The move infuriated former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, who slammed Husic’s “expulsion” and urged Anthony Albanese to intervene and also blamed “factional lightweights” for demoting Dreyfus.

Gareth Evans, a former Labor minister in the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating governments, also spoke out in a rebuke of the government.

Evans told Nine newspapers the party’s election euphoria would be “rather short-lived” if the factional “engineering” was repeated.

Left faction MP Mark Butler defended the process of factions deciding the portfolios, but acknowledged it was difficult.

“Politics is a tough game, and they (Mr Dreyfus and Mr Husic) would be feeling very, very hurt right now,”  Butler told Sky News.

“I’ve served with Mark since I was elected in 2007. He’s a good friend and this is very tough for him. Ed, I’ve served with a little less time, but I’ve known for a long time as well.”

But Butler said the party’s internal process was democratic and part of a “long tradition”.

“As you’ll remember, Kevin Rudd changed it for a short period of time and went to a system of the Prime Minister appointing and choosing the ministry, that wasn’t something that the Labor Party took to. We’ve returned to our traditional method, which is democratic.

“Every member of the caucus is entitled to nominate. Every member of the caucus is entitled to vote. And as you know, our Prime Minister is a bit of a traditionalist, both within the party itself, but also in the way in which our society operates.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will assign portfolios next week.

Speaking to the largest Labor caucus ever elected on Friday, Albanese acknowledged his place in history alongside the 21 people who have led the Australian Labor Party since its inception in 1901.

His election win one week ago is Labor’s biggest on a two-party preferred basis since John Curtin during the Second World War.

The lower house haul of 91 seats, which could go as high as 95 as counting continues, is the largest in the party’s history.

With one eye on growing the party’s numbers at the next election, Albanese urged his party to show cohesion.

“If the Labor Party is focused, if the Labor Party is united, if the Labor Party is always thinking not about the people in the room but the people outside of the room … there is no reason at all why, not only can everyone return here after the next election in 2028, but that more people can’t be elected with Labor next to their name as well,” he said.

Partly driving Labor’s success in the election was a backlash against the Coalition’s proposal to gut the public service, which Albanese described as “frankly juvenile, anti-Canberra rhetoric”.

Unity is in short supply in the Liberal Party.

The Liberals’ moderate and conservative wings have fallen in behind deputy leader Sussan Ley and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, respectively, as the duo vie for the party leadership vacated by Peter Dutton.

The party room meets on Tuesday to settle the issue.

Meanwhile, the Greens will vote for a new party leader on Thursday after Adam Bandt was booted from his lower house seat of Melbourne.

Deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi and manager of business in the Senate Sarah Hanson-Young are early frontrunners, but fellow senators Larissa Waters, David Shoebridge and Jordon Steele-John have also been touted.

Interim leader Nick McKim has ruled himself out of the race.

He defended the Greens’ stance on Gaza, saying it was important to call out genocide, amid criticism that it alienated voters.

-with AAP