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AAP
AAP
Politics
Dominic Giannini and Andrew Brown

Dutton 'using race' to win votes on voice: Bandt

Adam Bandt has accused Peter Dutton of using race to win votes ahead of the voice referendum. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Greens leader Adam Bandt has accused Opposition Leader Peter Dutton of trying to use race to win votes, as talks on the Indigenous voice continue.

Debate on the upcoming voice referendum is set to continue late into the night in federal parliament, with the Liberals and Nationals coming out against the constitutionally enshrined body.

Mr Bandt said while the Greens would have preferred the government make a treaty with Indigenous people the priority, the party would back the voice.

However, he said Mr Dutton in his opposition to the voice was denying justice to Indigenous people.

"The leader of the opposition has taken this opportunity to divide instead of unite, to continue a long tradition of seeking to use race to win votes," the Greens leader told parliament.

"The Greens want to see (the voice) succeed not only because it is a key element of the Uluru statement, but because failure will take us further away from truth and treaty."

Mr Dutton said the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament would take the country backwards.

The minister for Indigenous Australians says Peter Dutton is spreading misinformation on the voice. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

He labelled it a reckless roll of the dice and an overcorrection and called it Orwellian in that it would make it so "some Australians are more equal than others".

The comments follow prominent 'yes' campaigner Noel Pearson saying a rejection of the voice would put an end to reconciliation in Australia.

In an event at Sydney University on Monday night, Mr Pearson said he still believed there would be a majority 'yes' vote, but a referendum defeat would set the cause back.

"The reconciliation agenda will have no credibility after this failure, it will evaporate," he said.

"We will go back to protests and protests and it will be never ending."

Meanwhile, Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who quit the frontbench to campaign for the voice, said he was working to quell concerns that a compromise wouldn't get his party onside with the proposal.

He said removing the provision allowing the voice to make representations to the executive government would swing some voters.

Former shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser quit the coalition front bench to support the voice. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

This is despite the assertion making the change wouldn't sway opinion in the Liberal party room.

"I disagree it won't change a single vote. You've heard my colleague Aaron Violi come out and say that it would make a difference to his vote," he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

"This is not about (parliament). This issue leaves this building at the end of June and then it becomes a matter for the Australian people."

Parliament will decide on the wording of the question to be put to the public at the referendum, along with the proposed changes to the constitution itself, should the referendum succeed.

Australians will vote in the referendum between October and December.

But the Nationals won't support the legislation.

Leader David Littleproud told a joint coalition party room meeting that mistakes were made during colonisation but a constitutional voice wouldn't help, instead saying Australians needed to work together rather than apart.

He also said there needed to be a respectful debate.

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