Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton will fight a bitter battle over the vote to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to parliament in the Constitution after the Liberal Party pledged to oppose a referendum and push for a watered-down symbolic model.

Mr Dutton confirmed he would campaign for the No case ahead of this year’s national vote, deriding Mr Albanese’s model as an elitist “Canberra Voice” incapable of representing regional and remote communities.