Anthony Albanese has faced a public grilling, fronting an at times hostile TV audience as he battles dismal polling.
Fronting the ABC's Q+A program, the prime minister had a thorny interaction over his actions to protect the Jewish community amid a spike in anti-Semitic attacks.
A Jewish mother of four asked when she could safely identify her religion in public.
"It is frankly completely unacceptable that a young Jewish person feels like they can't identify openly or wear their school uniform on public transport around," Mr Albanese said.
"It's something that I think is a source of enormous regret."
But the audience member wasn't satisfied with his answer, chastising him for not going harder.
"You have to understand we're a broken community now, we are hurting - you're our prime minister, you're our leader, there was hate speech and nothing was done," she said.
"We've suffered because nothing was done."
Mr Albanese reaffirmed that he had called out hate and anti-Semitism in all forms consistently.
He further called for people to come together when asked about rising Islamophobia.
"A woman shouldn't be attacked in the street for wearing a hijab and that quite unfortunately occurs far too often," Mr Albanese said.
Social media had a role to play in fostering tolerance, he added.
"People can say things on social media which are hateful, that are divisive and they'd never say to a person's face and that somehow makes it more acceptable," he said.
Mr Albanese committed to further housing help after being pushed on the housing crisis by Victorian Socialist candidate Jordan van den Lamb - an affordable rental advocate known as "purplepingers" who has millions of social media followers.
On Indigenous policy, the prime minister walked back his commitment to a truth-telling commission and treaty - the other two parts of the Uluru statement.
The referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice in the constitution - a key component of the Uluru statement - failed and the decision had to be respected, Mr Albanese said.
"We've heard the statement from the Australian people, we're concentrating on economic empowerment," Mr Albanese said.
"We do need another direction."
Labor has been struggling in the polls and Mr Albanese's personal popularity has also plummeted as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton gains ground.
But Roy Morgan has given Labor a light on the hill, putting it ahead 51-49 on a two-party preferred basis after the Reserve Bank cut interest rates.
The poll predicted a minority government with Labor's primary vote increased 3.5 per cent to 31.5.
The coalition took a three per cent hit, dropping to 36.5 per cent, while support for independents remained at 10 per cent.
Climate 200 backer Simon Holmes a Court has emailed supporters asking for $270,000 for "wall-to-wall TV ads to give to three key independent seats" to combat the opposition's nuclear energy policy and boost independent candidates.
