By Dominic Giannini and Maeve Bannister in Canberra (updated 5pm)

FINISHING touches are being put on advice to the federal government to enshrine an indigenous Voice to parliament.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and Senator Pat Dodson met with the referendum working group on Wednesday afternoon.

After cabinet considers the advice, the government is expected to introduce its legislation to alter the constitution next week, setting the referendum wheels in motion.

Working group member Megan Davis said the group had already agreed to key design principles and was finalising its advice to the government.

The Voice will be designed to represent indigenous communities and be empowering, community-led, inclusive, respectful, culturally informed and gender balanced.

“We are so close to taking the next historic steps towards a successful yes vote. We are putting the finishing touches on this historic change,” Prof Davis told reporters in Canberra.

“Australia, let’s get this done together. Walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.”

Meanwhile, the government has struck a deal to move ahead with separate legislation setting out how the referendum will run.

The opposition agreed to support the bill in the Senate with amendments, including a physical pamphlet outlining both the “yes” and “no” cases and some funding changes.

There will also be official recognition of both campaign organisations as well as better opportunities for people to vote in remote communities.

The mobile polling period for remote communities will be extended to 19 days and a greater number of identification methods will be accepted to enrol or update enrolment.

There will be an advertisement blackout for three days before the referendum.

The disclosure threshold for donations to entities will be frozen at $15,200 instead of increasing with inflation.

But coalition senator Jacinta Price has already threatened to cross the floor if she did not agree with the final bill, noting she had not seen the full details of the amendments.

She met with Indigenous community leaders who shared her opposition to the voice to parliament.
The Indigenous senator said the voices of First Nations people had been trampled on “for years and years, if not decades” and the voice would just add another layer of bureaucracy.

Labor minister Don Farrell revealed a “no” campaign organisation had applied for tax deductible status and it would be treated in the same way as the application for the “yes” campaign organisation, which was granted.

But taxpayer money will only go towards a non-partisan information campaign as opposed to “yes” and “no” advertising.

Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham said government funds should only be spent on enabling organisations to meet basic campaign requirements.

The Greens and crossbenchers wanted stronger truth in advertising laws to ensure only accurate information was sent out in the pamphlets.

But the government indicated it would not support on-the-day enrolments for the upcoming referendum.

“It seems somewhat ironic to have a vote about a voice but to restrict the voices who can vote about whether they’d like to have a voice,” Greens senator Larissa Waters said.

Her indigenous colleague Dorinda Cox said the amendments to how the referendum will be run would help pave the path to success, which would in turn open to door to truth-telling and a First Nations treaty.

“The only way we’re going to do that is actually secure a yes vote in the voice to parliament,” she said.