Bill Shorten has pledged to legislate for an indigenous voice to parliament if there isn't a bipartisan commitment to hold a referendum.
The opposition leader recognised the 10th anniversary of the Closing the Gap strategy by announcing the next Labor government will consider legislating a voice to parliament.
"I say to the prime minister and the government - we will work with you, but we will not wait for you," he told parliament on Monday.
Federal cabinet last year rejected the Referendum Council's proposal for a constitutionally enshrined indigenous voice in parliament.
Mr Shorten also promised to compensate survivors of the Stolen Generation in the nation's two territories, who have slipped through the cracks in the decade since the National Apology.
He says the apology given by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd was more than a set of well-chosen words.
"It was more than just an expression of sorrow or regret, but a declaration of intent, a promise for action," Mr Shorten said.
In the past 10-years, state Labor and Liberal governments - apart from Victoria - have established different forms of compensation for members of the Stolen Generations, he said.
While these schemes are not perfect, first Australians in the Northern Territory and the Koori people of the ACT and Jervis Bay - who are the responsibility of the Commonwealth - have not received any financial compensation whatsoever.
Under the new plan, around 150 survivors of the Stolen Generation will receive an ex-gratia payment of $75,000 as well as a one-off payment of $7000 to ensure the costs of a funeral are covered.
The National Healing Fund will be administered by the Healing Foundation, an indigenous-run organisation which supports the ongoing needs of the Stolen Generations with services such as counselling, family reunion, return to country and support for elderly survivors.
A Shorten government will also convene a National Summit on First Nations Children in its first 100 days, bringing together governments and experts to determine the different factors that lead to child removal and work on solutions to reduce the rates of out-of-home care.
In 2017, more than 17,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were living in out-of-home care compared with about 9000 a decade ago.
