Cape York leader Noel Pearson has called on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to put a referendum on Indigenous recognition to a vote if he wins the election next year, and has urged Mr Shorten to delay a plebiscite on a republic until after the Indigenous vote has been settled.

Key points: Mr Pearson says the idea of having a vote on the republic first is "completely shocking"

Mr Pearson says the idea of having a vote on the republic first is "completely shocking" He says a republic should only come after reconciliation with Indigenous Australians

He says a republic should only come after reconciliation with Indigenous Australians He says the referendum on Indigenous recognition must be put to the community soon

In an exclusive interview with the ABC, Mr Pearson warned that a report due to be released on Thursday by a parliamentary committee tasked with finding a way forward on Indigenous constitutional recognition has kicked the "can down the road".

He said Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who is the co-chair of the committee, was unable to get the Government to accept that a referendum should be supported.

"After more than 10 years of many, many reports — I think eight official [Parliament] reports over more than a decade — we're basically going to kick the can down the road with a proposed design process for the voice and there is no explicit articulation of the steps needed to put the question to the Australian people via a referendum," he said.

The committee was established after the Federal Government rejected the Voice to Parliament model proposed in last year's Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Mr Pearson said the referendum question must be put to the Australian people

Mr Pearson said Indigenous Australians wanted a vote as soon as possible, and that it would be offensive to have a vote on the republic first.

"If we ever move towards an Australian republic, it has to be a just republic founded on just foundations, and those just foundations must at the very least be reconciliation with the original owners and possessors of this country," he said.

"The notion that a referendum would be promulgated by the first term of a Shorten Labor government, or at least a plebiscite on this question, without putting a similar plebiscite or referendum on the question of recognition, is quite frankly a shocking idea.

"[It's a] completely shocking idea — that Indigenous recognition and Indigenous justice can be overtaken at the rank by the question of a republic."

Mr Pearson said the referendum question must be put to the Australian people.

Sorry, this video has expired Noel Pearson says Indigenous recognition must come before a Republic

He said while recognition of same-sex marriage was rejected by the Parliament, that "wasn't accepted by Australians, that was not accepted by the gay community, that was not accepted by the families and the communities that supported that cause".

"We cannot accept this as a last word," he said.

"We can't accept it as the correct position because it patently is the incorrect position.

"The report is good in the sense that it endorses the idea of a voice, but it is incorrect insofar as it fails to articulate a pathway towards a vote of the Australian people."