After a bill to allow the ACT and Northern Territory the opportunity to legislate on voluntary assisted dying fell short by just two votes in the Senate this week, the chief minister wants the issue to no longer be subject to a conscience vote within the party.

In his address to the ACT Labor conference on Saturday morning, Mr Barr will say he respects the views of those who do not support voluntary assisted dying, but the issue of whether the ACT legislative assembly can vote on it should not be subject to a conscience vote.

"Territory rights should not be a matter of conscience. I will be lending my support to calls for Labor’s national conference in December to bind all future votes on territory rights. End-of-life choices is an intensely personal issue and euthanasia must remain a conscience vote for our party,” Mr Barr said.

Federal Labor members are bound to vote along party lines on almost all issues, while on sensitive issues like abortion and voluntary assisted dying members are allowed to vote with their personal views even if they differ to those of the party.

"Our next challenge is to fight for the Canberra community’s right to be able to talk about end-of-life choices, respectfully and openly," Mr Barr will tell the party's members.

"What I hope we can all agree on is that our community, and our parliament, is mature enough to legislate on the issue."

Labor's representative in the Senate David Smith said in the chamber this week he personally did not support voluntary assisted dying, but supported the territory's right to legislate in this area.

The call from the chief minister comes ahead of the party's national conference, postponed to December after a series of by-elections were called for the conference's original weekend at the end of July.