Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has backed an Indigenous senator who claims colonisation had a “positive impact”, urging Australians to listen to her rather than “capital city views”.

But Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said the comments from Coalition senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price had caused great distress among the Aboriginal community.

On Thursday, Price warned the Voice to Parliament would divide the nation, using a National Press Club speech to say the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians was not caused by systemic racism.

She also rejected suggestions British colonisation had a negative impact on Indigenous people, resulting in intergenerational trauma.

“There is no ongoing negative impacts of colonisation,” she said on Thursday.

“If we keep telling Aboriginal people they are victims, we are effectively removing their agency and then giving them the expectation that someone else is responsible for their lives.”

Dutton praised Price’s courage on Friday, saying her comments represented a broad range of views as she had grown up in Alice Springs.

“[She] was brave, prepared to stand up for what she believes in, and believes passionately about making a better society for Indigenous Australians,” he told Nine’s Today show.

“The left, including Linda Burney, have got this capital city view of what should happen and frankly, we’ve been listening to people like Marcia Langton and others for 30 years and here we are today with a worse situation for Indigenous Australians than than we’ve ever had.

“I’d start listening to people like Senator Price so that we can get practical support and assistance to Indigenous people on the ground.”

But Burney, who actually hails from regional NSW, said Price’s remarks were offensive.

“There are many people I’ve spoken to last night, this morning, that are very distressed and quite frankly, pretty disgusted,” she said on Friday, while campaigning for the Voice in Sydney.

Burney said Price’s was also “simply wrong”.

“It’s a real betrayal to the many families that have experienced things like Stolen Generations,” she said.

“The idea that colonisation in any country … doesn’t have long and far-reaching effects is simply wrong.”

Labor’s national president Wayne Swan called Price’s remarks “bizarre”.

“This story didn’t begin 42 years ago when Senator Price was born. It goes back to 1788,” he told Today.

“I grew up alongside Indigenous communities and she is denying their lived experience – experience of the Stolen Generations, experience of lost wages where people weren’t paid.

“There’s been a whole lot of traumatic experience over a long period of time which has left a legacy that the country has to deal with.”

Historian Henry Reynolds said Price’s statements were far from the truth.

“It clearly flies in the face of a whole generation of new history that has told us a totally different story,” he told ABC’s Radio National.

Indigenous Australians could have gained access to running water and food without having to suffer, he said, describing British colonisation as “one of the greatest land grabs in human history and what was the beginning of a catastrophe”.

The Yes campaign will ramp up efforts across the country over the weekend, with thousands expected to attend walks for the voice.

More than 40 events are planned for capital cities and regional towns in every state and territory.

Burney reveals ‘gruelling’ abuse

Elsewhere, Burney was caught on a microphone discussing the “unbelievably racist” debate around the referendum after the past fortnight of Parliament.

Speaking to NSW Premier Chris Minns in Sydney on Friday, Burney described recent weeks as “gruelling”.

“We’ve just finished two weeks of gruelling parliament … to me it’s just unbelievably racist and bullying. The way they have treated me is appalling,” she said.

She did not specifically refer to the opposition. But Burney was repeatedly targeted in Parliament this week with questions about the Voice and comments by Indigenous academic Marcia Langton.

Also on on Friday, Burney said her “office, social media and email accounts have been inundated with racist abuse” in recent weeks.

“Racism takes its toll,” she said.

“But I will never allow racism to weaken or diminish my resolve to see Australia embrace constitutional recognition through a Voice.”

– with AAP