Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must use May's 50th anniversary of the referendum recognising Australian Aborigines to finally deliver the promises that have been broken by governments since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

This was the call of Robert Tickner, the Keating government's minister for Aboriginal affairs, who was in charge of implementing the royal commission's 339 recommendations.

"These are fixable social problems, but things won't change and won't be prioritised much unless our current and future prime ministers seize the agenda and become its champion in the same way Paul Keating did for Mabo," Mr Tickner said when addressing a National Archives of Australia media conference on the release of selected cabinet records for 1992 and 1993.

"I think Malcolm Turnbull is a good and decent person who wants to do the right thing in Aboriginal Affairs, but expressed good intentions are not enough without the necessary leadership to generate real change, and I desperately hope he seizes the moment on this.