Labor's national executive will decide today on preselection for the Northern Territory Senate ticket.
Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, chose Aboriginal Olympic gold medal winner, Nova Peris as her 'captain's pick' for the NT Senate ticket - a move that will almost certainly unseat the ALP's current NT Senator, Trish Crossin.
The ALP national executive will decide representation on the NT ticket in a vote, effectively shutting out rank and file members from the decision-making process.
The meeting will be convened in Melbourne.
Indigenous ALP members in the Northern Territory had planned to flood Labor's national executive with Senate nominations in protest at the expected preselection of Ms Peris.
NT Labor Senate preselection candidate, Marion Scrymgour, said the nominations should be seen as an objection to Ms Gillard's intervention in the preselection process.
She questioned what role senior NT Labor MP and Gillard Government minister, Warren Snowdon, had in the drafting of Ms Peris.
'There are members of the Labor Party in the Northern Territory who would like to know just what is Warren's role in all of this,' Ms Scrymgour said.
'You can't be a Minister in the Federal Government and not know what was going down.'
Mr Snowdon, who refused to comment the national executive meeting, said he had not been consulted about the Prime Minister's decision.
He said he understood angst within NT Labor over Ms Gillard's intervention, but defended the preselection process.
'There is a party process - maybe not the one that people in the Northern Territory think is appropriate, and I understand the concerns that have been expressed very strongly,' he said.
'But nevertheless, there is a process.
'Once that's done we'll go on and try and beat Tony Abbott at the next election. That's our goal, that's our job, that's our responsibility.'
