Indigenous leaders have welcomed the news of a vote to change the constitution to recognise the nation's first peoples within the next three years.
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Velma 'Aunty Val' Mulcahy said a referendum was "overdue and it's about bloody time".
"We're the first people, we're the original people and we're still not in the constitution," Aunty Val said.
"If it's a fair go for Australians, it's a fair go for Aboriginals too."
Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group chairperson Kim Leevers said the group would take a "wait and see" approach to the referendum.
"The Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group's position is to support the Uluru Statement from the Heart," Mr Leevers said.
"While it's pleasing to see the Federal Government is making the right sort of noises at the moment, history would tell us many attempts have been made to get this over the line.
"We'd have to take a wait and see position because until the details of what they're proposing are released, it's hard to make any comment."
Mr Leevers said he personally felt "cautious" about the news.
"Governments come and go, they say things and nothing ever comes out of it," he said.
"Clinton Pryor gets to Canberra and basically gets told thanks but go away. The same thing happened when they presented the Uluru Statement.
"The Aboriginal people need to have these things so they can have control of their own destiny."
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Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt has stressed the government won't go ahead with a referendum until it's certain it will succeed.
"It will take time, it will need to be measured," Mr Wyatt told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
"We need to design the right model to progress to a point at which the majority of Australians, the majority of states and territories and indigenous Australians support the model so that it is successful."
- With AAP
