Sydney - (AFP) - Australia is expected to hold a referendum in 2023 on an amendment to the constitution that could give a "vote" in parliament to indigenous people, the government announced Wednesday.

This amendment would allow about 900,000 people considered indigenous (out of the 25 million in the country) to be represented in parliament so that they could have a say in the development of national policies.

No such article is contained in the constitution adopted in 1901. Amending the constitution has always been a controversial issue in Australia.

The center-left government elected in May had pledged to organize a referendum on the issue.

And on the occasion of a traditional festival on Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made sure to "reaffirm, with pride and clarity, the government's intention to include the question of a vote in parliament for indigenous people in the constitution."

This change would help Australia "close ranks as a nation and take the outstretched hand" of Aboriginal people.

And the pressure group "Reconciliation Australia" pointed out that the inclusion of this proposition in the constitution allows avoiding the "silencing of the voice" of the indigenous people by a different government that wants to reverse this decision.

The Australian National Party, a small conservative bloc, announced that it would campaign against this "voice".

The Liberal Party (from the center-right), which is the largest opposition force, has not yet announced its position in this regard.

Some have criticized the project as "a new layer of useless bureaucratic docs", questioning its actual effects on the indigenous population.

For example, Norway and Canada had previously amended the constitution in this way in the eighties.

According to the National Museum, the indigenous people settled in the region about 65,000 years ago, but they have suffered discrimination since the end of the eighteenth century, following the arrival of British settlers and campaigns to suppress them.

They were disenfranchised in some Australian states and territories until the 1960s.

Inequalities remain severe among the indigenous population, as this minority suffers from more difficult living conditions, limited access to health care and education, and lower wages and life expectancy.

Her children make up 27% of all prisoners, according to the Australian Law Commission.