Bill Shorten will use a landmark speech on Tuesday to propose sweeping changes to the ALP to weaken the influence of unions, extend direct election of candidates, broaden policy formulation, and attract thousands of new members.
Relying on what he will call ''my mandate as the first member-elected leader of the Australian Labor Party'', his radical plan involves the most significant cultural shift in Labor internal structures in decades including an end to Labor's longstanding requirement on prospective members that they be members of a relevant union.
''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,'' his speech notes say.
He also has flagged a sharp reduction in union say in Labor's supreme policy making body, its triennial national conference, by constructing its membership in future through ''a mix of people directly elected from and by Labor members, and those elected by state conferences''.
That could see union representation at national conferences - the next one being scheduled for 2015 - dropping from as high as 70 per cent to as low as 25 per cent.
The ambitious democratisation push is aimed at modernising the face and the body of Labor by breaking the grip of unions and factional chieftains and delivering the ALP from the pernicious influence of back-room players and so-called faceless men.
The moves could face stiff resistance from those very quarters, especially because Mr Shorten believes the challenges facing his party go much deeper than mere presentation.
Declaring ''today is the day to face up to some hard truths,'' the rookie Labor leader will lead off his argument with the admission that it was not Tony Abbott who had sent the ALP packing into opposition at the last election but the voters themselves.
''Unless we change, it is where we will stay,'' he will argue in the address to Melbourne's The Wheeler Centre.
But to drive the change, Mr Shorten also has a message for the legions of Labor detractors - erstwhile supporters in the broader electorate who had become some of the party's chief critics in office: ''If you think the system is broken, help us fix it''.
''If you opt out, if you choose the 'plague on both your houses' option, then you are depriving the country of your talents,' he will say.
He believes the removal of the compulsory union membership rule is more than mere symbolism.
'''This change makes it plain that in 2014, Labor is not the political arm of anything but the Australian people,'' his speech notes say.
With the government's controversial royal commission into union corruption preparing for its first hearings, it is clear the Labor leader, who himself once headed one of the country's more powerful unions, wants to more clearly delineate Labor from unions, many of which are struggling from declining membership, and a perception of being career advancement vehicles for would-be Labor MPs.
In a blunt vindication of the conservative attack on Labor's close relationship with trades halls, Mr Shorten will call for his party to ''write a new democratic contract'' admitting the part of unions in Labor had ''developed into a factional, centralised decision-making role''.
As previously reported by Fairfax Media, Mr Shorten will also propose a 20 per cent increase in direct election of candidates in lower house seats where ALP branches have memberships above 300.
''In Victoria, this will mean a 70:30 split in favour of local party members,'' his speech says.
