The Aboriginal flag will have a permanent home atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge "as soon as possible", NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said.
"We've been working through this for some time," he told reporters in Sydney on Saturday.
The premier said the first advice he had received on the reconciliation gesture was that it would take two years to make good, something he felt was excessive considering the bridge itself was built in nine years.
"I'll climb up there and put it up myself if I need to," Mr Perrottet said.
The federal government secured a copyright transfer for the Aboriginal Flag in a $20 million deal following negotiations with Luritja artist and land rights activist Harold Thomas.
Mr Thomas designed the flag in 1971 and it was first flown in Adelaide on National Aborigines Day that year.
The flag will now follow the same protocols as the Australian National Flag, where its use is free but it must be treated with respect and dignity.
“I hope that this arrangement provides comfort to all Aboriginal people and Australians to use the Flag, unaltered, proudly and without restriction,” Mr Thomas said last month.
Demonstrators have called for the Australian Aboriginal Flag to be flown atop Sydney Harbour Bridge for years. Source: AAP
'Symbolic and practical reconciliation'
Mr Perrottet said the initiative was part of a new holistic government approach to acknowledging Indigenous Australians in NSW that would include the remediation of Sydney's Goat Island and its return to Aboriginal ownership.
"Part of the change we are looking at today is empowering all ministers to have buy-in to that responsibility. There are many issues that go right across the board, across different departments," he said.
"If we all work together and have a key focus, I want all our ministers to be minister for Aboriginal affairs in their own right.
"We can't truly be proud of our country unless we are working together to achieve true reconciliation," Mr Perrottet said.
"That's a combination of both symbolic reconciliation and practical reconciliation."
The premier said it was important to engender a deeper understanding of Indigenous culture, something he said had been lacking and, as such, was "a travesty".
NSW Labor welcomed the decision on the flag's installation on the iconic bridge but said actions ultimately spoke louder than words.
"I hope the new premier actually follows through on his commitments and we're not just seeing more platitudes and empty promises," spokesman for Aboriginal affairs David Harris said in a statement.
He said the opposition had also been calling for the return of Goat Island to its rightful owners since 2015.
