Indigenous leaders from the No campaign have launched a furious tirade against the Prime Minister, and warned that a Yes vote on October 14 will divide the nation along racial lines.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday that the vote for the historic referendum, when Australians will decide whether to enshrine an Indigenous Voice in the constitution, will be on October 14.

Hours later, prominent No campaigner Warren Mundine gave an impassioned and angry speech in which he swore on his parents’ graves that he would “fight this”.

Mr Mundine said he would campaign to “crush this division” that he said had been caused by the push for a Voice.

Flanked by NT Senator Jacinta Price, Mr Mundine warned that the Voice would not be a  “magic wand” to fix problems for First Nations people.

Instead, he said it was about “division and dividing this country” and had triggered the “racial abuse we’ve been hearing over the last few months”.

Mr Mundine blamed Mr Albanese for “all the horrible bigotry that’s been going on out there”.

“He’s the one who started this. He’s the one who brought it out,” he said.

“If he thinks the Voice is the answer to fixing everything, this magic wand, then he’s not answering the real question.

“The real question is out there, is about how do we help people who are in tremendous problems in Aboriginal communities out there. What is his answer?

“We’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, which could be better spent in those communities than him flying around the country with his happy clapping crowd … it’s not going to do anything for these people.

Mr Mundine said he was “very angry” because he had fought so long to “be treated the same as every Australian”.

“We are here about building a liberal democracy of freedoms and liberties and equality, not dividing our nation by race,” he said.

Senator Price said No campaigners would “not allow for the Prime Minister and this referendum to divide our country along the lines of race within our constitution”.

Senator Price said it was wrong to suggest Indigenous Australians did not already have a voice.

“Voices like mine, elected parliamentarians, like my good friend Warren Mundine are speaking up,” she said.

“We are telling this Prime Minister our voices are relevant. The voices of those Indigenous people in this country that we represent who do not support this, who did not participate in the Uluru dialogues have spoken up.

“The Prime Minister is effectively ignoring us. So, to suggest we have not had a voice is completely and utterly misleading.”

Mr Albanese announced the date for the country’s first referendum in 24 years in a speech in Adelaide on Wednesday, saying the Voice had support from a vast cross-section of the country.

He was joined at the event by Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

The announcement marked the start of a six-week campaign on the proposed constitutional change.

The referendum will ask Australians to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of Australia by enshrining an advisory body known as the voice.

For the referendum to succeed, a majority of states need to vote ‘yes’ as well as the majority of Australians.

The referendum will be the first time Australians will vote on whether to change the constitution since the country vetoed the republic in 1999.

South Australia was chosen for the launch as it is viewed as a key battleground state for the poll.

Queensland and Western Australia are widely expected to cast a ‘no’ majority.

It is anticipated NSW and Victoria will swing behind the ‘yes’ campaign.

A survey of 605 South Australians by think tank the Australia Institute indicates 43 per cent back an Indigenous voice to parliament while 39 per cent are opposed.

The undecided 18 per cent were evenly split in their leaning, putting ‘yes’ ahead at 52-48.

Mr Albanese said Indigenous people had been advocating for constitutional recognition through a voice for years.

-with AAP