Janaline Oh, Labor's newly preselected Senate candidate, supported the motion and said she had run for preselection to prompt a debate within the party over diversity.

"I explicitly said I want to stand because I am not a white person, because I really want to see this party represent the diversity of the ACT community. To my astonishment, the party actually agreed. Totally called my bluff and here we are," Ms Oh said.

Ms Oh said establishing an action group was about promoting diversity within the Labor party.

"It is about expanding our vote into those areas where people are happy with the benefits from a Labor government but perhaps don't quite understand the fight that has gone into it, and who perhaps don't see themselves reflected in the faces of that government," she said.

Former MLA Deepak-Raj Gupta, who also spoke in support of the motion, called on delegates to consider whether the conference and Labor membership in Canberra reflected the city's diversity.

"Our citizens and supporters want to see a part of themselves represented in their elected representatives. As the most progressive branch in the country, ACT Labor should set the best possible example," Mr Gupta said.

The party's election review recommended establishing an action group to improve diversity across the party's ranks and candidates.

"ACT Labor needs to continue work to ... bring members of the multicultural community into the party and to support them in the party as well as focusing outwards into how to support current members to elevate themselves in their communities," the review said.

Conference delegates also passed a motion to support the establishment of medically supervised safe injecting rooms in Canberra, with the party agreeing to acknowledge the harm minimisation benefits of the facilities.

One of the most contested debates of the day centred on whether to replace "social justice" with "socialism" in the party's stated aims.

Former Labor minister John Hargreaves said socialism kills off individualism, and it needed to be democratic socialism or nothing.

"It's not cosmetic, it's insidious. They're taking away 50 per cent of the reason we joined in the first place," Mr Hargreaves said of the change.

Another delegate said the change would be cannon fodder for the Liberals to attack the party in the ACT.

"The Canberra Times will pick this up and say, 'Oh we're a bunch of commies'," the delegate said, imploring delegates to vote against the change.

The motion passed with support from Left-aligned delegates.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr previously said in a statement the debate at the conference was moot because the national constitution of the Labor Party's stated aim was democratically socialist.

Mr Barr said he supported the party's national constitution.

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