Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on Thursday delivered a National Press Club speech in Canberra setting out her argument against having an advisory body enshrined in the constitution.
Asked if she accepted that trauma sparked by colonisation had been passed down between generations of Indigenous Australians, Senator Price rejected the idea.
"That would mean that those of us whose ancestors were dispossessed of their own country and brought here in chains as convicts are also suffering from intergenerational trauma," she said.
"So I should be doubly suffering."
Senator Price said colonisation had delivered many benefits.
"We've got running water, we've got readily available food," she said.
"Many of us have the same opportunities as all other Australians in this country, and we certainly have probably one of the greatest systems running around the world in terms of the democratic structure."
Senator Price said the referendum - due to be held on October 14 - was dividing the nation, and the gap in wellbeing was not caused by systemic racism.
"If we keep telling Aboriginal people that they are victims, we are effectively removing their agency and then giving them the expectation that someone else is responsible for their lives," she said.
The former Alice Springs deputy mayor supports recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the constitution, as well as legislated local and regional voices.
Anthony Albanese earlier joined Indigenous AFL legend Michael Long on the last leg of his long walk from Melbourne to the nation's capital to encourage Australians to vote 'yes'.
The prime minister said Mr Long's efforts paralleled Wiradjuri man Jimmy Clements' 1927 walk from the Brungle Mission in NSW to the former parliament house to appear uninvited at the building's opening ceremony.
"Police tried to remove Clements because he'd arrived after such a long walk from Tumut, dishevelled and barefoot," Mr Albanese told reporters.
"The crowd rose up and said, 'No, Indigenous people have a right to be here'.
"So I say let us work together in dignity and unison. Any journey is, of course, about embracing something different."
The former AFL player retraced the same route he took in 2004 when protesting then-prime minister John Howard's decision to disband the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.
"(Mr Howard) has told Australians to 'maintain the rage', but this is not about rage, it's about love," Mr Long told reporters.
"It's about giving Indigenous people power over their destiny so that their culture can be a gift to this country."
Mr Albanese urged MPs leaving Canberra for a four-week break from parliament to take Mr Long's message of "love, hope and reconciliation" back to their electorates.
10°C