The vast majority of Australians support recognising indigenous Australians in the constitution, a poll has found.
As Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten prepare to meet with about 40 indigenous leaders in Sydney on Monday, the Fairfax Ipsos poll shows 85 per cent of voters support amending the document.
Just over 10 per cent oppose the move.
Labor's indigenous affairs spokesman Shayne Neumann says Monday's meeting is an important milestone.
The MP, who will be attending the gathering, hopes there will be unanimous agreement on a mechanism to go forward, including the establishment of a body to oversee the process.
"There's a lot of goodwill in the community," he told ABC radio.
Leaders to meet on Indigenous recognition
Opposition leader Bill Shorten says Australians are big enough and generous enough to vote for genuine change in a referendum on indigenous recognition in the constitution.
"Cosmetic" tinkering around the preamble, he says, is insufficient.
Mr Shorten's comments come ahead of a meeting between 40 Indigenous leaders, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and himself in Sydney on Monday to thrash out a form of words for a referendum on Aboriginal recognition in the constitution.
There is cross-party backing for recognition, as well as strong support in opinion polls and from the Aboriginal community itself.
"None of this is beyond our grasp," Mr Shorten said in a statement.
"I believe Australians are big enough, smart enough and generous enough to vote for genuine, real change. Cosmetic tinkering with the preamble is insufficient.
"Together, we can tackle the discrimination that lurks in our constitution, the `race powers' that speak for an Australia long vanished."
The National Congress of Australia's First Peoples on Sunday told the ABC it will push to change a clause in the constitution that allows race discrimination, while government frontbencher Alan Tudge has said banning racial discrimination would be tricky.
The Prime Minister's chief indigenous adviser Warren Mundine says the big question of the day will be the wording of the referendum question.
"That's what the argument is going to be about," he told Sky News on Sunday.
He said it would be a "kick in the gut" if a referendum did not occur.
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