Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's bold attempts at fundamental structural reform of the Labor Party have been all but voted down by the ALP's Victorian conference.

Mr Shorten has built his leadership on party reforms to give rank-and-file a greater say in election of candidates and leaders.

"We cannot shirk the task of modernising the party, we cannot shirk the task of rebuilding the party, we cannot shirk the task of being a party that genuinely practises what it preaches for the nation of Australia," Mr Shorten said at the state conference on Sunday.

But his proposals, designed to weaken union dominance, were deferred and diluted as union factional opponents who stood to lose power under the proposals banded together to defer and defeat the changes.

Despite being 10 points ahead in Monday's opinion polls as the electorate digests an unpopular federal budget, Victorian unions were in no mood to cut Mr Shorten some slack.

"The paradox with reforming a political organisation is that those who have the power don't want to give it up," former ALP state secretary Nick Reece told ABC's 7.30.

"But in order to achieve the reform, you need the people in power to accept the case for reform. So you end up with a stalemate situation, in which reform is very difficult to achieve.

"Australian political parties have the lowest membership in the world. Collingwood Football Club has more members than the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and the Greens combined."

Labor party must continue to change: Shorten

After a public backlash against unions which has seen a royal commission called, the Labor leader had pushed to weaken their stranglehold on Labor's central selection panel.

Mr Shorten wanted to bolster the weight given to the vote of local branch members in candidate selection from 50 per cent to 70 per cent.

After 48 hours of furious behind-the-scenes negotiations by union and party delegates, the proposal was deferred until after the national ALP conference in March 2015.

Daniel Andrews has batted off suggestions that he fought Bill Shorten's proposals. (file photo) ( AAP )

"The Labor Party's got to continue to change. That's inevitable. The path of rebuilding can't be done in one day or one weekend," Mr Shorten said when asked by 7.30 whether the deferral represented a loss for him.

Also deferred was a plan to allow branch members a say in electing the state leader.

Party sources told 7.30 that supporters of Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews were vigorously lobbying against this being debated so close to the state election in November - an election Mr Andrews has a good shot at winning.

A fight with the party could derail his campaign. But Mr Andrews batted off suggestions that he fought Mr Shorten's proposals on 774 ABC Melbourne on Monday.

"You're telling me what my position is, and I'm putting it to you that it's wrong," Mr Andrews told presenter Jon Faine.

Mr Shorten also downplayed questions from 7.30 about tensions between the pair over reforms.

"What matters to Daniel Andrews is the best interests of Victoria. What matters to me is the best interests of Victoria and indeed the nation," Mr Shorten said, adding that the days of Labor disunity were "behind us".

Union leader mocks claims of reform blocks

A third proposal to combat union power - allowing people to join the ALP online - was also diluted and capped at just 20 members per branch per month, angering delegates who were passionately pushing for reforms.

"There are some people in our party who stand to lose from a bigger and more open party," Monash mayor and pro-reform delegate Geoff Lake told 7.30.

"The entrenched branch-stacking interest within some parts of our party is the interest that will be watered down if more normal Australians become members of the Labor Party."

The powerful, right-wing Shop, Distributive and Allied (SDA) Employees Association, known as the "shoppies" union, aligned with left unions like the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

SDA state secretary Michael Donovan mocked claims his and other unions were blocking reform.

"The ALP is so good at shooting itself in the foot. Whenever we do something good, somebody runs out into the media and tells everyone how bad we are," he said at the conference.

"So everyone voting for us knows we're really, really bad. Well, we're not bad."

But former foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr says the problems with the ALP will not be fixed by Mr Shorten's attempts at party reform. He believes it is about leadership - or lack of it.

"I tell you what, a bottom drawer full of killer arguments directed at your opposition counts a whole lot more than endless tinkering with the party structure," he said.

"The next phase has got to be reaching out to the public and - like a Wran, like a Whitlam, like a Keating - winning debates, with sizzling one-liners, mobilising the killer facts, to win the policy arguments."