diff --git a/tools/reference/BUILD b/tools/reference/BUILD
index 50176ff6..ea1c113e 100644
--- a/tools/reference/BUILD
+++ b/tools/reference/BUILD
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ go_library(
     deps = [
         "//vendor/k8s.io/api/core/v1:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/meta:go_default_library",
+        "//vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1:go_default_library",
         "//vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime:go_default_library",
     ],
 )
diff --git a/tools/reference/ref.go b/tools/reference/ref.go
index 5cf77219..58b60fd5 100644
--- a/tools/reference/ref.go
+++ b/tools/reference/ref.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 
 	"k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/meta"
+	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
 )
 
@@ -61,10 +62,10 @@ func GetReference(scheme *runtime.Scheme, obj runtime.Object) (*v1.ObjectReferen
 	}
 
 	// An object that implements only List has enough metadata to build a reference
-	var listMeta meta.List
+	var listMeta metav1.Common
 	objectMeta, err := meta.Accessor(obj)
 	if err != nil {
-		listMeta, err = meta.ListAccessor(obj)
+		listMeta, err = meta.CommonAccessor(obj)
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, err
 		}