As the only jurisdiction to enforce a rule requiring Labor Party members to also belong to a union, the ACT branch of the party could find itself in the firing line at this weekend's national conference.
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Labor leader Bill Shorten wants the rule scrapped.
"I believe it should no longer be compulsory for prospective members of the Labor Party to join a union and I have instructed our national secretary to have this requirement removed from Labor Party rules," Mr Shorten said last year.
". . . It's a change that makes it clear that Labor is not exclusively for one group of Australians."
ACT Labor secretary Matt Byrne expects the issue to be debated at this weekend's conference.
He said if the change was made, ACT Labor would have to confront the issue at its conference in August.
The ACT was the only jurisdiction to enforce the rule, which meant anyone in a job where there was a union must prove union membership when they joined the party and when they renewed their membership each year. It did not apply to business people, the unemployed, students or retirees.
However, Mr Byrne said Canberra was one of the most democratic branches, and the only jurisdiction other than the Northern Territory to have full rank and file voting to preselect candidates, with every eligible party member able to vote on candidates.
Others should follow suit, he said.
"I support greater member say in the party and I would hope that, eventually, the Labor Party moves to 100 per cent rank and file votes for preselection across the country," he said. "I think that you preselect better candidates when you give the members a say."
When Mr Shorten made his call to scrap the requirement for union membership last year, the royal commission into unions was just gearing up.
Since then, damaging allegations have emerged about tactics among some union leaders, including in the ACT.
Mr Shorten said last year corruption had no place in the union movement.
"Our best defence is to rebuild our party with a new, more open, democratic and transparent model of membership," he said. "Rebuilding Labor means giving our members a voice, not just asking for their vote."
Canberra sends just seven delegates to the 400-delegate national conference: three right faction members, three left and one independent.
They are Assembly members Andrew Barr, Joy Burch, Yvette Berry and Chris Bourke, and unionists Alistair Waters, national president of the Community and Public Sector Union; Athol Williams, an organiser with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association; and Dean Hall, ACT secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
The ACT contingent will push for a greater say at the conference, with the ACT having a base number of just two delegates (plus twice the number of lower House seats, plus the leader), whereas the states get a base contingent of 12.
