Albanese travelled to the sacred Aboriginal site of Uluru, a giant red monolith in central Australia, on a media blitz to try to persuade skeptical voters to recognise Indigenous people in the 1901 constitution for the first time.

The constitutional amendment would also give Indigenous peoples a “Voice” – the right to be consulted about issues that affect their communities, with many battling poor health, lower quality education, and higher rates of incarceration than other Australians.

“What I want to see is the best of Australia. We are a great multicultural success story,” Albanese told public broadcaster ABC, with Uluru dominating the background as he wore a wide-brimmed hat to fend off the desert sun.

Albanese said he had met a week ago with leaders of a range of faiths – all of them supporting the constitutional reform.

“That, to me, was a really moving moment of unity. That is the sort of Australia that I want to see, an Australia where we’re defined by our unity, not by our divisions,” he said.

Albanese’s centre-left government promised to call the referendum when it successfully campaigned for election in May last year, but support for it has since plummeted.

Recent polls indicate a split of about 60-40 against the “Voice”, with the conservative opposition attacking it as an ineffectual, bureaucratic reform that would divide Australia.

More than 200 years since British colonisation, Indigenous peoples – whose ancestors have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years – endure entrenched inequalities, with lifespans about eight years shorter than the rest of the Australian population.