Australia PM meets Indigenous elders ahead of referendum

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called on voters to show "the best of Australia" by backing a landmark Indigenous rights referendum Tuesday.

Albanese travelled to the sacred Aboriginal site of Uluru, a giant red monolith in central Australia, on a media blitz to try to persuade sceptical voters to recognize 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, many battling poorer health, lower quality education and higher rates of incarceration than other Australians. Albanese said he had met with leaders of a range of faiths -- all of them supporting the constitutional reform.