It's not about revolution, Shorten says

The most recently elected federal Labor senator is an old-style trade union leader who used his factional power to ensure himself a comfortable seat in the upper house.

The woman he replaces accuses him of being deeply homophobic, and disloyal to the ALP after admitting he hadn't always voted for the party in upper house elections.

If that wasn't enough, Joe Bullock is on the record telling others some Labor members were "mad", portraying himself as a bulwark against "every weird leftie trend".

Before April 5, when nearly eight out of 10 voters spurned Labor in the West Australian Senate election re-run, federal leader Bill Shorten was presenting Bullock as the acceptable face of his party.

Now, he's advocating major reforms that include selecting the "best possible candidates" for Senate elections.

Labor has to be a modern, outward-looking, confident and democratic party, says Shorten in a speech on Tuesday.

Bullock's pre-selection was everything but.

Shorten argues he has a member-driven mandate to change the ALP, notwithstanding that 40 per cent of Labor's rank-and-file voted for his leadership rival Anthony Albanese.

He's where he is today because the federal parliamentary caucus, dominated by trade union influence and the factions, thought better than party members.

Yet Shorten wants more people to be part of Labor, setting an ambitious target of 100,000 members - more than double today's number.

He wants to make it easier to join the party, citing his own experience of "jumping through hoops" to become a member at 16.

Every Labor supporter should be able to become a member in minutes, not months, he says.

As well it should be cheaper for young people, those on low incomes, students, apprentices and trainees to be a party member.

And they shouldn't be made to join a trade union.

Once they're in, party members should have a say in who leads the party by weighting the rank-and-file votes in preselection contests.

In Victoria, for example, that will mean a 70:30 split in favour of local members.

In non-Labor held seats - and there will be more than 90 of those at the next federal election - Shorten wants more primary-style community preselections.

Unlike the WA preselection process, where the Right and Left factions decided Bullock's candidacy, members will be given a "meaningful" say in Senate preselections.

Getting a seat at the table of Labor's national conference - supposedly its policy-setting vehicle - should be a mix of people chosen by members and those elected by state conferences.

Shorten insists his plan is not about revolution, it's about evolution.

It is about rebuilding the party, but not with a technical job of updating its rules.

"It is a moral task of renewing our ideas and sense of purpose," he says.

The alternative, Shorten argues, is a party doomed to see its great mission live on only in the archives - and its great successes grow dusty in the trophy cabinet of history.

And in a dose of reality, the Labor leader reminds his colleagues they have to face up to some hard truths.

Tony Abbott did not put the party in opposition, he says.

"The Australian people put us here and unless we change, it is where we will stay," Shorten says.