Various proposals have been suggested to symbolically recognise the special place Indigenous Australians have as the first peoples of Australia, along with substantial changes, such as prohibitions on racial discrimination, the protection of languages and the addition of new institutions.
[1] On 16 October 2007, Prime Minister John Howard promised to hold a referendum on constitutional recognition, and Labor leader Kevin Rudd gave bipartisan support.
The report titled Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution was presented to prime minister Julia Gillard on 19 January 2012.
[2]: p xviii The panel sought a referendum process that will be nationally unifying and not divisive, with an eventual level of public support similar to that in 1967.
If the federal government were to prefer different changes, the panel advised, it should return to consultation with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
[8] It conducted national consultations which continued through the second half of 2016,[9] and published a discussion paper about five key proposals in October 2016.
[12] It was a deeply considered statement recommending deliberate structural reform, setting out three steps to achieve this, in a way that recognises First Nations sovereignty and overcomes their current powerlessness.
[18] The Morrison government has said it would run a referendum during its present term about recognising Indigenous people in the Constitution "should a consensus be reached and should it be likely to succeed”.
[20] In his Closing the Gap speech in February 2020, Prime Minister Morrison reinforced the work of the Referendum Council, rejecting the idea of merely symbolic recognition, supporting a Voice co-designed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, "using the language of listening and empowerment".
[22] On 30 March 2023, the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) bill was introduced to the Australian House of Representatives by Attorney General Mark Dreyfus.
According to Marcia Langton (now co-chair of the Senior Advisory Group), "for such a national agreement to be achieved, there must be some mutually pressing reason related to security or economic issues for both parties to abide by the terms".
[28] The Australian Human Rights Commission supports recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in a preamble to the Constitution.