The question that will be taken to the public in the referendum for the Indigenous voice to parliament will be known by the end of June at the latest.

Manager of government business Tony Burke said legislation that would finalise the wording of the question for the referendum and the wording of the constitutional changes would be put forward in the second quarter of the year.

The wording will need to set out in legislation that will need to pass both houses of parliament before Australians head to vote in the referendum.

Mr Burke said changes to the country’s referendum laws to modernise them were needed first before the final referendum details were known

“Once [both bills have passed], then the deadlines as to when the vote will happen are all locked in,” Mr Burke told ABC Radio on Monday.

The referendum to enshrine an Indigenous voice to parliament is due to be held by the end of the year.

The latest Newspoll has indicated 56 per cent of respondents were in support of the Indigenous voice to parliament, with 28 per cent strongly and 28 per cent partly in favour, while 37 per cent were opposed – 23 per cent strongly against and 14 per cent partly against.

While Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has said he wants to see more detail on the proposal, Mr Burke said more than enough had been provided.

“I can’t think of any referendum proposal where there has been more process than this,” he said.

“The entire processing, years of it, while Peter Dutton was in government, that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart is an extraordinary level of process … the challenge now is whether we can respond with the same level of graciousness as the invitation that’s put in the Uluru Statement.”

The Liberals have yet to finalise their official stance on the voice, while the Nationals have indicated they will not back the proposal.

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The government’s special envoy for reconciliation has also expressed the need for the voice to come before a push for a treaty.

While the Greens have called for a treaty to be implemented before the voice, Labor Senator Pat Dodson said such processes would lack credibility without the voice.

“To have a treaty, you have to have a voice, you have to have an entity, you have to have a group of people that have a standing or that … have credibility,” he said.

“The majority of Australians can see the significance and, in one sense, the limitedness of what we’re doing or trying to do with the principle in the constitution.”

The Greens will hold a party meeting this week to finalise their position on the Voice.

-AAP