Australia’s centre-left government wants to change the constitution to empower the Indigenous population, which is persistently plagued by poorer health, lower incomes and higher rates of incarceration.

But it first needs the public to agree to a proposal to give Aboriginal people the right to be consulted on legislation that affects them – a so-called Indigenous Voice to Parliament – in a binding referendum later this year.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said he was resoundingly against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s proposal, shredding hopes that it would sail through on a tide of bipartisan support.

“It should be very clear to Australians by now that the prime minister is dividing the country,” Dutton told reporters, before confirming he would campaign to sink the plan.

Dutton said he supported constitutional recognition for Indigenous people in principle, but he could not back the government’s proposal because it was divisive and lacked detail.

“I don’t think this is in our country’s best interest,” he said.

Uphill battle

It is rare for referendums to succeed in Australia without support from both sides of the political spectrum – in the past 120 years only eight of 44 referendums have passed.

Polls show that about 54 percent of Australians back the constitutional change, but support has been slipping and there are lingering questions about how the Voice would work.

Albanese has previously painted it as a test of national character and whether Australians had the “confidence to embrace our history”.

“What we have done up to now hasn’t worked,” he said in January.

Indigenous Australians settled the country some 65,000 years ago, and are today recognised as one of the planet’s oldest continuous cultures.

But they are not mentioned in the Australian constitution, drafted in 1901, and have had to fight many painstaking battles to secure even basic rights.

Aboriginal Australians were banned from voting in some states and territories as recently as the 1960s.

If the referendum is successful the Australian government will establish a constitutionally protected Indigenous advisory body with the right to be consulted by parliament on new laws.

“A Voice to Parliament, enshrined in our Constitution, will mean that our people are listened to and heard on the issues that affect us,” Aboriginal Senator Patrick Dodson has said previously.

The inequalities facing the Indigenous population remain stark – they have life expectancies years shorter than other Australians and are far more likely to die in police custody.

Indigenous Australians make up two percent of the total population but, according to the Australian Law Reform Commission, constitute 27 percent of prisoners.