Outcry as Australian opposition refuses to back constitutional recognition of Indigenous people

If passed, the referendum would give constitutional recognition to Australia’s Indigenous people, who, after generations of genocide, dispossession, and displacement, track below national averages on most socio-economic measures. Photograph: Loren Elliott/Reuters

Indigenous Australian leaders have condemned the country’s main opposition party for their “Judas betrayal” of the nation, after the Liberal Party declared it would campaign against a proposal for constitutional recognition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Later this year, Australians will vote in a compulsory referendum on whether they support an alteration to the constitution to establish an Indigenous “voice to parliament”, a committee to advise the parliament on matters that affect the lives of Indigenous people.