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The Liberal Party has urged Anthony Albanese to go back to the drawing board on an Indigenous voice and constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton summoned MPs to Canberra for a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a position on the voice, which is due to be put to a referendum later this year.

The model put to parliament by the Albanese government, after consulting with Indigenous leaders and constitutional experts, is based on adding a new section to the constitution which would recognise First Peoples and enshrine a voice to the parliament and government.

After a two-hour meeting, the Liberals agreed to back constitutional recognition in a different form of words to that proposed by the government and a legislated local and regional voice for Indigenous people.

"It appears some people don't want a voice - they'd rather have a whisper," Mr Albanese told ABC Radio after the Liberal announcement.

Mr Albanese said Mr Dutton had done all he could to undermine the referendum and Wednesday's decision would make it harder to succeed.

"This isn't something that's come from politicians, this is something that's come from the ground up, from Indigenous people themselves," he said.

Mr Dutton said the Liberal Party did not support "the prime minister's Canberra voice".

"We want to make sure that we can get the best possible outcomes for Indigenous Australians," he said.

"We do that through recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution and by providing for their say, their voice to be heard by government, in a very clear way but at a local level."

Mr Dutton confirmed he will actively campaign for the 'no' campaign in the lead-up to the referendum.

He said the government's proposal would not deliver the outcomes needed for Indigenous communities.

Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney reaffirmed the government's commitment to its proposed model.

"I hope that the Liberal Party is not repeating mistakes of the past," she said.

"There is enormous support and momentum in the Australian community for this referendum."

Ms Burney criticised Mr Dutton for not once suggesting constitutional amendments during any of his seven meetings with the prime minister.

The opposition will seek to amend the bill which was introduced in March and is expected to be voted on in June after a parliamentary inquiry.

While Liberal backbenchers are free to vote with the government on the legislation, the shadow cabinet is bound by the party position not to support the model.

Mr Albanese said he was aware of Liberals who were considering resigning from the front bench to support the government's model.

At least four Liberal backbenchers will campaign for a 'yes' vote, including Tasmania's Bridget Archer.

Before the meeting, former Morrison government minister Ken Wyatt warned his ex-colleagues a decision not to support the voice could come back to bite the Liberal Party.

Mr Wyatt, a member of the referendum working group, said the voice proposal was not new and had been the subject of multiple reports considered by consecutive prime ministers.

Thomas Mayo, a member of the working group, said he was "deeply disappointed" the Liberals had joined the Nationals in opposing the model.

"They've chosen to refuse us the fairness of a voice," he said.

© AAP 2023

Locked in a stranger's home, four-year-old Cleo Smith recognised her name on a radio news report which drowned out her desperate pleas to see her mother.

"She said 'they're saying my name'," District Court of Western Australia Chief Judge Julie Wager revealed on Wednesday during the long-awaited sentence hearing for Cleo's kidnapper, Terence Darrell Kelly.

Kelly, 37, will spend more than 11 years behind bars after confessing to impulsively snatching Cleo from her family's tent at the remote Blowholes campsite on October 16, 2021 while high on methamphetamine.

He drove Cleo 75km southeast to his Carnarvon home and kept her there for 18 days before police found her alone in a bedroom, playing with toys, in the early hours of November 3.

The dramatic rescue and Cleo's confirmation of her name was captured by an officer's body-worn camera and gained global attention.

Kelly was arrested nearby about the same time.

He sat silently in the dock wearing a green shirt as details of the abduction were revealed, with Cleo's mother Ellie Smith and stepfather Jake Gliddon in the public gallery.

A loner obsessed with dolls who created Facebook profiles for his own "fantasy children" and communicated with them, Kelly left Cleo home alone for extended periods while he went shopping and visited relatives.

The court heard she spent much of that time trapped in a bedroom which Kelly had modified to lock from the outside.

Aware a major search had been launched for Cleo, Kelly put the radio on loudly to drown her out.

In a police interview outlined by Judge Wager, Kelly said he knew what he had done was wrong.

He said he had played with the girl but also became angry and "roughed her up a bit a few times".

"I wasn't planning to keep her forever, you know. I was getting guilty every day and it was just more weight on my shoulders," Kelly said.

The court heard Kelly had arrived at the campsite, 960km north of Perth, looking for items to steal before coming across the Smith family's two-room tent, where Cleo and her younger sister were asleep in a separate compartment.

Kelly made the opportunistic decision to take Cleo, whose parents were sleeping nearby.

He lifted her up along with her sleeping bag and carried her to his car in "relative silence".

Cleo's parents awoke to find her missing hours later, "not knowing if she was alive or dead for the next 18 days".

"They didn't know what happened to her or if she would ever return," Judge Wager said.

"(They) were sad, scared and confused. They described being too fearful to sleep ... feeling completely empty and broken.

"They stayed at the place that caused them so much pain, hoping their little girl would be located."

Describing the fear and distress caused to Cleo and her parents as "immeasurable", Judge Wager sentenced Kelly to 13 years and six months imprisonment.

Kelly, who received a discount for his early guilty plea, will be eligible for parole after serving 11-and-a-half years.

"Being separated without any explanation is distressing for a four-year-old child," the judge said.

"But 18 days without contact or explanation and with hours totally on her own and no access to the outside world, would have been very traumatic for the child.

"In the world of a four-year-old, a day is a long time ... 18 days is a very, very long time indeed."

Kelly later told police he had injected methamphetamine shortly before arriving at the Blowholes campsite.

The court heard the Yamatji man had suffered significant childhood trauma and deprivation.

He was abandoned by his parents aged two and his maternal aunt who adopted him reported having found alcohol in his baby bottle.

Judge Wager accepted a diagnosis of complex developmental and personality dysfunction.

Had he not been disinhibited by illicit drug use, he would have been "far less likely" to commit the crime, she said.

© AAP 2023

The Liberal Party will formally oppose enshrining an Indigenous voice in the constitution, but will back constitutional recognition.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton summoned MPs to Canberra for a meeting on Wednesday to discuss a position on the voice.

After a two-hour meeting, the party agreed to support constitutional recognition of Indigenous people, but not a constitutionally enshrined voice to the parliament and executive government.

Mr Dutton said the Liberal Party did not support "the prime minister's Canberra voice", but rather wanted a legislated local and regional voice mechanism.

"We want to make sure that we can get the best possible outcomes for Indigenous Australians," he told reporters in Canberra.

"We do that through recognising Indigenous Australians in the constitution and by providing for their say, their voice to be heard by government, in a very clear way but at a local level."

Mr Dutton confirmed he will actively campaign for the 'no' campaign in the lead-up to the referendum.

But he said he would not tolerate derogatory comments about Indigenous Australians from members of his party during the debate.

"Creating another national body out of Canberra, as the prime minister is proposing, divides our country. It doesn't unite and it's not going to deliver the outcomes on the ground," he said.

"What we're saying ... is that we want to hear a better way for Indigenous Australians who are in the most dire of circumstances."

The opposition will propose amendments to the model introduced to parliament by the government at the end of March.

The model was based on recommendations from the referendum working group which provides advice on the voice.

While Liberal backbenchers are free to vote with the government on the legislation, the shadow cabinet is bound by the party position not to support the model.

At least four Liberal backbenchers will campaign for a 'yes' vote, including Tasmania's Bridget Archer.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese earlier said calls from the Liberal Party to delay a referendum on an Indigenous voice were absurd.

"This is a nation-building effort and I call upon everyone to support it," Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

"This is not controversial and should not be an issue of partisan politics. It's a modest proposal.

"The idea that you can simply ignore or dismiss the views of the referendum working group in my view contradicts the very concept of a voice which is about listening."

Before the meeting, former Morrison government minister Ken Wyatt warned his ex-colleagues a decision not to support the voice could come back to bite the Liberal Party.

"Parties that are out of touch will pay the consequence in the future," he told ABC Radio National on Wednesday.

Mr Wyatt, a member of the referendum working group, said the voice proposal was not new and had been the subject of multiple reports considered by consecutive prime ministers.

"People who argue contrary to that shows they did not give scant attention to even the executive summary of those reports," he said.

A Newspoll conducted for The Australian and reported on Tuesday night showed 54 per cent of all voters support constitutional recognition and the voice to parliament, with 38 per cent opposed.

The poll signalled the likelihood that a referendum would meet the critical double majority test to succeed if one were held today.

© AAP 2023