Tony Abbott will soon sit down with indigenous leaders, and Bill Shorten, to discuss a referendum on constitutional recognition, Attorney-General George Brandis says.
He says a possible date has been given to the opposition leader.
A joint standing committee report is due next month, recommending the form of a referendum question.
Senator Brandis also says his Liberal colleague Cory Bernardi is entitled to think a referendum is "doomed to fail".
Senator Bernardi, who believes recognition is a side issue for the parliament and the community, says a "No" campaign before the referendum - expected in 2017 - is inevitable, if only to give Australians an important choice.
"Anything that seeks to divide our country by race, and every proposal that I've heard of seeks to do exactly that, I think is doomed to fail," he told ABC radio on Thursday.
Senator Brandis said he respected that view, but added that his colleague was elected as part of a coalition government that had a platform of progressing constitutional recognition.
The attorney-general conceded it would be a long and slow process to get Australians onside through a national conversation.
"I think that we should be relatively modest in our aspirations here," he told ABC radio.
"Anything that is too radical is going to frighten public opinion away and a referendum would fail."
Share
