Anthony Albanese and Daniel Andrews have used the first Victorian Labor conference in four years to urge party faithful to hit the hustings for the federal voice to parliament.
The prime minister and Victorian premier were among hundreds who gathered at Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne on Saturday for the two-day conference.
Mr Andrews said the voice had the power to transform, to teach and heal Australia, and chastened some in the Liberal Party for describing it as an act of division.
He encouraged Labor's assembled rank-and-file members to use their campaign skills to tilt the scales in favour of the referendum later this year.
"We all need to do what Labor people do best," the premier told delegates.
"Knock on doors, hit the phones, rally your workmates, have those conversations with your neighbour, your uncle, your nonna, your mates down the footy club.
"Whether your family has been here for five years or 50,000, this is a juncture in our history that calls on us to stand together."
Fear-mongering and racism are putting a strain on Aboriginal people amid a deliberately divisive national debate, Victorian Treaty and First Peoples Minister Gabrielle Williams said.
"Its aim has been to further entrench the power structures and the engineered silences that have kept us from shifting the dial," she said.
In his speech, which also unveiled a $2 billion public housing fund, Mr Albanese said the 'yes' campaign was being championed by everyday Australians because the idea did not belong to politicians or peak bodies.
"The proposal all of us will be voting on at the referendum is the product of years of work and thousands of conversations among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves," he said.
"Their hopes and aspirations, captured in the Uluru Statement from the Heart ... and I am optimistic the Australian people will rise to this moment."
A small group of demonstrators protesting federal Labor's refugee policy waited to greet the prime minister outside the racecourse.
A statue of four-time Cox Plate winner Winx was graffitied with a pro-refugee slogan and messages were spray painted on the footpath, including "conference 4 refugee torturers".
Police are investigating the overnight criminal damage.
It was the first Victorian Labor conference since 2019 after a federal takeover of the state party following allegations of branch stacking against former Andrews government minister Adem Somyurek.
The takeover in mid-2020 led to the expulsion of 1700 "non-genuine" Labor members and suspension of voting rights until administrative control was handed back in late January.
Rules have since been brought in to stop a repeat of the branch-stacking scandal.
A motion - pushed by a faction linked to federal minister Bill Shorten and the Australian Workers Union - to overturn some of the new rules failed.
Delegates passed a motion calling on the Victorian government to immediately raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14 with no exceptions after it pledged to do so by 2027 with some exceptions.
Motions to include housing in Victoria's human rights charter, make inclusionary zoning mandatory and crack down on Airbnbs and other short-stay accommodation were overwhelmingly supported.
Resolutions are non-binding on federal and state MPs.
Rethinking the AUKUS submarines deal, access to abortion services and the stalled Melbourne Airport Rail Link are among Sunday's agenda items.
