Labor split over Albanese plan for joint referendum

Bill Shorten has remained silent on an Anthony Albanese plan for indigenous recognition which contradicts Labor policy.

Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten. Picture: Brendan Radke

Bill Shorten has refused to support a proposal by former leadership rival Anthony Albanese to hold a joint referendum on the ­republic and indigenous constitutional recognition on January 26.

The Opposition Leader’s office would not be drawn on Mr Albanese’s idea, revealed in The Weekend Australian, which contradicted Labor policy.

Mr Albanese proposed the joint referendum as a way of creating a national “platform of unity’’ and ending divisions over the date of Australia Day.

“It would mean Australia had a day which recognised our modern history of new arrivals, our continuous history of indigenous Australians dating back some 80,000 years and a recognition of confidence of us in a modern state,’’ Mr Albanese told his inner-western Sydney electorate on Friday.

The Australian understands Mr Shorten remains committed to holding separate referendums on the republic and indigenous recognition but his office would not confirm this yesterday. The decision to separate the referendums has split some inside the Labor Party.

Mr Albanese’s proposal is set to further wedge Mr Shorten on the Australia Day issue after he struggled to respond to the Greens-led push to change the date.

Left-wing Labor MPs were surprised when Mr Shorten announced last year that a future Shorten government would not change the date of Australia Day.

Former ALP national president Warren Mundine backed Mr Albanese’s call for the indigenous recognition vote to happen on Australia Day but argued it should not happen at the same time as any vote on the republic issue.

Mr Mundine said the republic vote would drown out the issue of constitutional recognition and risk its success at the voting booths.

“That should be entirely separate because we don’t know what the republic model is, we want it to be a simple debate so people can sit down and put their cases forward,” Mr Mundine said.

Mr Mundine also backed the idea of indigenous leader Noel Pearson to have Australia Day over two days, starting on January 25.

“This would straddle two sovereignties: the sovereignty of the First Nations who possessed this continent, and the crown’s sovereignty that commenced on January 26, 1788,’’ Mr Pearson said.