Prime minister urges caution over referendum date, saying undue haste could endanger chances of success

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Tony Abbott says he hopes a referendum on constitutional recognition for Indigenous people can be held on 27 May 2017 - the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum.

The prime minister said that would a “richly symbolic time to complete our constitution”.

When constitutional recognition came, it would be “a heartfelt pact between Indigenous people and conservative Australia”, he said.

But he said it was more important to get recognition right than to rush it through.

Speaking at a dinner in Sydney on Thursday night, he urged Australians who wanted a referendum to properly recognise Indigenous people to temper their ambitions.

Abbott said he was a strong supporter of the cause and wanted it to happen as soon as possible. But any proposal should be afforded the best chance of success, he said.

“Nothing would set back the cause of our country and the rightful place of Aboriginal people at its heart than a referendum that failed,” he told the Recognise gathering in Redfern.

He said there was still enough opposition to the campaign to cast doubt on the success of a referendum.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, also addressed the dinner and urged the government to come up with a form of words for the referendum.

“Without a concrete proposal, we cannot turn the national goodwill into meaningful momentum,” he said.

Shorten said recognition was long overdue.

“If we were crafting our constitution in 2014 we would not accept the omission of the first 400 centuries of our national history from our national definitive document,” he said.

Constitutional change must satisfy a majority of people in a majority of states.

A parliamentary committee report on the matter is due in the first quarter of next year.