Parliament is nearing the last step to finalise plans for the Indigenous voice referendum, with senators clashing over the proposed constitutional change.
Debate on laws that will set up the referendum, as well as the proposed wording change of the constitution, continued into the night on Friday.
The second reading of the bill passed parliament 42 to 13, but the final vote will not be held until the Senate next meets on Monday.
Once passed, the laws will start a time limit for when the referendum will take place, which the government has flagged for between October and December.
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price dismissed the voice as a distraction from the government addressing issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
"Guilt politics is not reconciliation, name calling, gaslighting and bullying Australians into submission is not reconciliation," she told the Senate.
"This proposal is little more than a power grab, a Trojan horse of nice sounding ideas that threaten to undermine the values of equality and fairness that Australians hold."
Senator Price said Indigenous people already had representation in federal parliament through MPs and senators, and that the government would not be required to listen to advice from the voice.
"The government should not be obliged to listen to any one group, only to the people who have the opportunity to vote for a new representative every three years," she said.
"Without a single vote cast this referendum has done more damage to the fabric of our nation than any other and it will get worse."
Indigenous Liberal senator Kerrynne Liddle also hit out at the constitutional proposal, arguing the referendum would see all Australians decide what is best for Indigenous people.
"The reality is that it will be 96 per cent of the Australian population who will determine what is best for four per cent of the population," she said.
"In this process today, most of the four per cent have not even been asked and like all Australians, they simply don't have the detail, just a bunch of principles."
But Senator Liddle argued that a 'no' vote would be a setback for reconciliation.
"Reconciliation is everyone's responsibility, and the work of reconciliation won't end regardless of the results," she said.
But Assistant Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said the voice would make Australia a better country.
"That's what this time in Australia's history is about: to take the leap of faith to be a better people, a better country with all our faults and to do it with dignity and to do it with determination," she said.
"This is your opportunity to be a part of something special, to be a part of something historic ... whatever your faith, this is your chance to be a part of something special to create the Australia that we could have done a long time ago if we'd had the opportunity."
Senator McCarthy said while detractors of the voice described the proposal as imperfect, the referendum would make meaningful change.
"I know to those Australians, especially First Nations, who feel this may not be enough. I say to you don't give up on us. We will get there so stay with us and walk with us."
An amendment to the referendum bill introduced by independent senator Lidia Thorpe, which would add a paragraph to the constitution on Indigenous sovereignty, was defeated in the Senate.
Amendments put forward by Liberal senator Richard Colbeck, which would remove the voice's ability to advise executive government should the referendum be successful, were also defeated.
