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Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the push to create an Indigenous Voice to Parliament must bring voters with it.Credit:Justin McManus

But Mr Frydenberg warned that the cause of Indigenous recognition cannot afford a “take it or leave it” attitude and urged all sides of the debate to come to the table to negotiate an outcome.

Launching the bookBuraadja:The Liberal Case For National Reconciliation,by Liberal senator Andrew Bragg,Mr Frydenberg said on Wednesday it remained to be seen what form the Voice and the key elements of the Uluru Statement from the Heart,would ultimately take.

“There is a willingness to enter into the debate to ensure our Indigenous Australians – our First Australians – get the recognition and the outcome that they deserve,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“We really have to focus on what unites us here and not divides. And we must ensure that the change,in whatever form it takes,is bipartisan.

“If this proposition in the Voice is a ‘take it or leave it’,I don’t think it necessarily advances in a way that some people think it will do. This is the reality we have to shape.”

Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatthas committed the government to legislate a Voice to Parliament,having released an interim report on the co-design process in January this year.

Under the proposal,Federal Parliament would have to consult a national Indigenous Voice on laws relating to race,but the proposed body could not veto laws or overturn government policy decisions.

Three working groups on the issue – taking in 52 members – have met more than 70 times since talks began on the Voice in October 2019.

But Labor has refused to support a legislative model,instead committing to establish a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament if elected – as per the calls of the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The government has killed off staging a separate vote on constitutional recognition and – despite being a Coalition policy at every election since 2007 – it remains a divisive topic within the party room.

Mr Frydenberg said there was a long history of Liberal achievement in achievements in Indigenous affairs and itwould take conservative leaders to champion the cause towards change.

Senator Bragg,who has been a vocal supporter of a referendum,says it is time all Parliamentarians should sit down with Indigenous leaders to discuss,negotiate and agree on the final set of words to be put to the Australian people in a referendum.

In a speech on Thursday,he will say it must be done in a way that eliminates any misconceptions about creating a third chamber of Parliament.

“This process must enable true co-ownership of the amendment. It must enable creative collaboration. The end result must have Indigenous support as well as bipartisan support. Both are politically and morally necessary,” he will say his Campion lecture address at St Aloysius College

“But this drafting process should not seek to resuscitate avenues and proposals that are already long dead. We cannot waste more time.”

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