Recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution will help right a “great wrong”, the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has said, as he sets out the path to a referendum on the issue.
The referendum council, set up this month and tasked with organising public consultation, will report back to the government in June.
The June deadline would be in line with the timeframe proposed by the former prime minister Tony Abbott, with a referendum in 2017 – the 60th anniversary of the successful 1967 referendum that endorsed the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people in the census for the first time.
“We are working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people to right a great wrong,” Turnbull said during the first meeting of the council, held in Sydney on Monday. “A mistake when our constitution was framed over a century ago, that there was no acknowledgement of the custodianship, of the Aboriginal history, of Australia. There was no acknowledgment of 40,000 years of occupation.”
Australia needs a new constitution that “reflects all of our history and does so in a way that unites us and makes us an even stronger country than we are today”, the prime minister said.
Turnbull, who headed the yes campaign during the 1999 republic referendum, reflected on that experience.
“Constitutional reform, as I know from experience, is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is it particularly straightforward or easy,” he said.
Only eight referendums have been carried in Australia’s 114-year history.
Indigenous leaders and constitutional experts have warned the federal government not to rush to the 2017 referendum deadline, saying community members needed time to digest the impact of any changes. Rushing it, they have warned, could risk failure.
Even the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, appears cool on the existing timeframe.
“I understand that we’ve set a timeline of June of next year, and whether or not that is sustainable, I don’t know,” he said during the council’s meeting on Monday. “I see June as an aspiration, but whether or not it’s set in concrete, I wouldn’t necessarily lose too much sleep over that.”
The 16-person referendum council is co-chaired by the West Australian Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson and the tax lawyer Mark Leibler.
The movement for recognition has broad bipartisan support, as reflected by the fact both Turnbull and Shorten attended the council’s meetings. But Shorten wants changes to go beyond the referendum, saying governments must focus on improving conditions and outcomes for Australia’s first peoples.
“We will also ensure through our policies that Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders see the gap closed and all the things which really mean a lot to us – health, education, employment, justice,” the opposition leader said.
Labor has pledged to set national targets for reducing the incarceration rate of Indigenous Australians if it wins office, a point of difference from the Coalition.
