(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
In his 2013 Social Justice and Native Title report, Mick Gooda also said it's time Indigenous people take responsibility and control over their affairs.
But there are differing opinions among Indigenous bodies on how to best achieve those outcomes.
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Mick Gooda's report marks 20 years since the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner's role was created.
Mr Gooda has used the occasion to call for a new narrative on Indigenous issues.
He says it's the right time to reflect on what progress is being made towards closing the disadvantage gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
"It's useful this year to look back over that 20 years and see what's been done, and how we can learn from those 20 years heading towards that target date of 2030."
The Close the Gap campaign aims to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to match those of the non-Indigenous population within a generation: that is, to close the gap by 2030.
The 2013 Social Justice and Native Title report has found that over the past 20 years there have been improvements in working towards health equality, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation and constitutional reform.
However, little progress has been measured in other areas, including Indigenous involvement with the criminal justice system.
In 2012, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children nationally were 25 times more likely to be in detention than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Mr Gooda has attributed this to mandatory sentencing and increased levels of family violence, among other factors.
The closing the gap reforms target the key areas of life expectancy, mortality rates, early childhood education, reading and numeracy, Indigenous achievement and employment outcomes.
Mr Gooda says it's now time for a separate target in the field of justice.
"What a target would do is provide a national focus. The Prime Minister, I understand, will continue the tradition of reporting to Parliament in the first sitting week of every year about the progress we're making on the Closing The Gap strategy. It's a call to arms by the state governments and Aboriginal communities here to step up and start thinking about how we can create safer communities."
But the President of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, Ray Jackson, says a new justice target would not achieve anything.
Mr Jackson says the focus should instead be on implementing the recommendations handed down by the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991.
"I don't see any justice targets working. I don't see any targets working. The close the gap targets are not working, or at best they're stagnant."
The Social Justice and Native Title report cites evidence supporting a human rights-based approach to addressing social issues in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency has supported Mr Gooda's calls for Indigenous communities to take more control.
The agency's CEO, Priscilla Collins, says alcohol and anti-social issues are areas where Indigenous people want to take on more responsibility.
"That's what we've always pushed for. And Aboriginal people do want to take responsibility for the alcohol issues that are affecting our people. That's something that's always been pushed. We had a forum in Alice Springs and we had a forum in Darwin where key organisations and stakeholders and elders got together. And that was the number one thing on their priority, that Aboriginal people want to take responsibility for the alcohol issues affecting Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. But to do that the Northern Territory government has to actually work in partnership with Aboriginal people and listen to what Aboriginal people have to say."
Commissioner Mick Gooda says the Australian Constitution's failure to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples remains a stain on the nation.
Mr Gooda says if his people were recognised, it could open a new chapter in the nation's history.
"It will change Australia forever. I think it will place Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our rightful position as being recognised as the first peoples of Australia. And I don't think we should underestimate the power and the value that's going to have for Australia as a nation and for the advancement of issues involving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people."
But Social Justice Association President Ray Jackson says the fight for constitutional recognition is a farce.
He says the constitution has to change before recognition within it will have any meaning.
"Unless we have our lands, our sovereignty, our treaty, our social justice - we don't have anything. And the Constitution, unless it recognises that and puts that in, and then starts dealing with the Aboriginal mobs as equals, that's when change will happen."
The group set up by Reconciliation Australia to drive the movement for constitutional recognition says it's confident the movement towards changing the constitution is the right one.
Campaign director for Recognise Tim Gartrell says the diversity of views within the Indigenous community on priorities doesn't threaten the success of the campaign for constitutional recognition.
"They don't conflict with each other. There are long running campaigns for all sorts of things, but what we do need to do in this country is fix the exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders from the nation's founding document. The constitution sits above all our other laws. It's the supreme legal document and it's silent on the long and impressive history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country and it also contains clauses that are racially discriminatory that need to go. So you can campaign for all sorts of things and support this as well."
