Opposition Leader Bill Shorten hopes there can be agreement by the end of 2015 on how to recognise indigenous Australians in the constitution.
There is bipartisan consensus on the importance of holding a successful referendum on the issue, but the question of how to do it is yet to be answered.
"This is the challenge of our generation and one we cannot abdicate," Mr Shorten says in a new year's message.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said it's more important to get constitutional recognition for Aborigines right than to rush ahead with a referendum that might fail.
He hopes the question can be put to the public by May 27, 2017 - the 50th anniversary of the 1967 referendum.
A parliamentary committee is due to report on the issue in the first part of 2015.
Mr Shorten has also looked forward to the centenary commemoration of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli.
It should be a reminder that Australia's best hope has always been its people, he said.
That showed in the way Australians came together during the horror, shock and grief thrown up by 2014.
"We refused to give in to adversity, or surrender to ignorance and intolerance," Mr Shorten said.
"We responded to division with unity, to fear with strength."
The opposition leader has pledged Labor will keep listening to the public in the new year and outline its vision for the future.
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