Australia's Indigenous health minister Ken Wyatt has warned against rushing into a referendum on including an Indigenous voice in federal parliament.
Wyatt has cautioned politicians on the need to balance what the broader Australian public will accept against the aspirations and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
On Friday, hundreds of Indigenous leaders at Uluru abandoned the prospect of a statement of acknowledgement in the constitution recognising Aboriginal people as the original owners of the land.
Instead, they pushed for a constitutionally elected Indigenous body in federal parliament, a mechanism for treaty making and a healing commission.
Mr Wyatt said the government would wait for the Referendum Council report, which will take into account the Uluru summit, before looking at a way forward.
"But I wouldn't want to see us rushing into a referendum where the awareness within the broader Australian society is not there because when people are not informed they can't make the choice in the way they believe they should," he told ABC TV on Sunday.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cautioned again on Saturday that Australians were "constitutionally conservative".
50 years on, 1967 referendum campaigner mentors next generation
Mr Wyatt echoed this, warning the recommendations for an advisory body had to be taken in the context of "what is it that we can bring everyone along with that they will be comfortable with".
"This is a topic that should be around barbecues, around the kitchen table and in general conversation now," he said.
Opposition frontbencher Richard Marles said the country had to get to the point where there was a broad consensus for any referendum to be successful.
"Recognition in the constitution is really important and we support that but we've never seen that as the be all and end all," he told Sky News.
Mr Wyatt hoped that once the referendum process was decided, there would not be a formal "no" case, just as in 1967.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged it was the democratic right of politicians to argue for both sides.
"I think also we will see people who have individual positions that may use social media to generate a 'no' argument, and I don't have an issue with that because I think that Australians generally are fair," he said.
AAP
