Why Anthony Albanese will pick October 14 as the Voice referendum date

After weeks of speculation, the date of the first Australian referendum since 1999 will be set down by Anthony Albanese in the "critical state" of South Australia setting both sides of the Voice proposition hunkering off on a six-and-a-half week hunt for a double majority result: a majority of votes in a majority of states.

A multi-partisan Canberra event will also be held to launch on Wednesday morning for the "yes" case in Civic with local ACT representatives, such as senator Katy Gallagher, Chief Minister Andrew Barr, independent senator David Pocock, ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury, Liberals for Yes figures and "yes" volunteers.

"Australians will have the opportunity to say 'yes' to recognition, 'yes' to listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples about matters that affect them in order to say 'yes' to getting better results," Mr Albanese told reporters in Adelaide.

"That's what this referendum is about."

Standing by the Prime Minister's side in Adelaide will be the South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Linda Burney who has stated she is "fighting fit" after breaking her silence over significant health issues including heart surgery and medication which she said had affected her speech.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our nation's founding document," Ms Burney said in a statement.

"With three letters, every Australian has the power to make the greatest country on earth even better.

"By voting yes to listening, and voting yes to better outcomes, Australia has nothing to lose and everything to gain."

Senior Indigenous figures Noel Pearson and Dean Parkin will join Ms Burney and other Labor ministers Penny Wong, Don Farrell, Mark Dreyfus and Amanda Rishworth at the event at the Playford Civic Centre in Elizabeth.

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The historic vote will ask 17.5 million eligible voters if the First Peoples of Australia should be recognised by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to the Parliament and the executive government.

"Consulting people is good manners," the Prime Minister said. "That is what this referendum is about."

"Because when you have good manners and you consult people you get buy-in, you get that sense of ownership as well, you get that positive response and the 'yes' campaign will be a positive campaign."

The official "yes" campaign body Yes23 said it has polling that about 40 per cent of the population is still undecided. It is what gives the Prime Minister hope.

"I think people will begin to focus more. I expect that many Australians won't focus until the last few weeks," he said.

Earlier, Australia's most senior Indigenous politician who is carrying the job of arguing the government's Voice position disclosed various conditions including a "mini-stroke" and heart surgery for a hole in her heart.

There has been a long whispering campaign about Ms Burney's health and her ability to carry her current workload.

"Thank you to the many people who have reached out to me to offer support. Your kindness means the world to me," the minister said in a statement.

"I am fighting fit and looking forward to travelling the country and having conversations with Australians about the need for constitutional recognition through a Voice.

By law, after the bill to trigger the referendum was passed in June, the poll had to be called between late September and December.

Mid-October is a sweet spot that avoids major football finals and gets ahead of the northern wet season.

It also comes at the end of a three-week parliamentary break, so it misses the heavy, largely negative political debate.

It is no fluke that the announcement is taking place in the capital of South Australia, a state widely regarded like Tasmania as a swing state.

To pass, the referendum needs the support of a majority of voters in four of the six states, and a majority of voters nationally. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said on Monday that he expected the final result would be "tight."

"South Australia is a critical state. I will be visiting South Australia a number of times in between now and the run-up to the election," Mr Albanese said.

"But I'm also very positive. We had a very positive response in Western Australia. I've been to Karratha as well as Perth in the last couple of days."

Mr Albanese has said, in spite of all the noise, there is not a big gap between the positions, while he said that Indigenous Australians are "overwhelmingly" they're in favour of the Voice and came up with the idea themselves

Mr Dutton, in spite of being on record as supporting constitutional recognition, has continued to criticise what he viewed as a lack of detail, while saying the Voice was divisive, permanent, and the biggest change to our constitution since federation.

"If I thought it was in our country's best interests, I'd sign up to it in a heartbeat but it is not," the Liberal leader said.