Labor’s Victorian branch at the weekend became the latest state division to endorse legal recognition of same-sex relationships, putting greater political pressure on Prime Minister Julia Gillard ahead of the party’s national conference in December.

Hundreds of delegates clapped and cheered at the conference in Melbourne on Saturday when the resolution was passed with only a small number of members voting against it.

Delegates at the weekend conference also urged the federal government to support onshore processing of asylum seekers after the troubled introduction of its “Malaysian solution”.

Wannon Labor candidate Judith McNamara said most south-west ALP members would support legal recognition of gay couples within the Marriage Act.

She said she hoped the party would adopt same-sex marriage as national policy and move forward to other social and economic issues.

“I think there’s a growing call for a ‘back-to-basics’ approach within the Labor party and supporting gay marriage and onshore processing are two of those issues that are core principles,” Ms McNamara said.

“If you look closely at your own families, your own communities, there are gay people living and working right across this country and they deserve the same rights as anyone else.”

ALP Hamilton branch president Stafford Hall said there was majority support within south-west Labor groups to amend the Marriage Act.

He was hopeful the Prime Minister would change her stance on the issue before the federal conference in December.

“My personal view is that (legalising gay marriage) is long overdue and this is definitely a step in the right direction,” Mr Hall said. “The Labor party is a party of change and of principle and I think this decision reflects that.”

Warrnambool mayor and leading south-west ALP figure Jacinta Ermacora attended the conference and said it was argued that “the right to marriage equality was not a religious matter but a civil one that would have no effect on religious groups”.

“The motion to call on the national conference to change the national platform was overwhelmingly carried,” she said.

An internet opinion poll co-ordinated by News Limited last year revealed an even split in support and opposition to gay marriage in the Wannon electorate.

Forty-three per cent of south-west voters supported marriage reform, 42 per cent were against and a further 14 per cent were ambivalent, according to the poll.