Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney has labelled the opposition "spoilers," for allegedly blocking proposed reforms by the government, eliciting a fiery response from Coalition Senators Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Kerrynne Liddle, who defended their positioning towards many of the government policies concerning First Nations people.

On Tuesday, Ms Burney was asked about the bill introduced by the Greens last week to establish a federal truth and justice system, similar to what the Makarrata commission proposed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The government has been accused of abandoning the proposal for truth-telling after last year's referendum defeat by handballing it off to the states.

Ms Burney didn't ward off this criticism when she said the government was "very committed" to the issues of truth-telling before highlighting the roles the states were playing, noting only one state didn't have a truth or Treaty process underway.

"It's not just governments that are responsible for this, it is also communities that are taking it up with gusto," she said.

Ms Burney then went after the Opposition, who were opposed to the Voice referendum last year, and have stated their significant opposition to treaties across the country.

"The Opposition has played an absolute spoiler's role, in my view, in Aboriginal affairs," she said.

"It was traditionally a bipartisan issue for many years across the parliament. I don't feel like it is now, I feel very sorry about that."

The comments were immediately seized on by the LNP, with Senator Price criticising the proposed commission as a nothing more than a detached government agency, amounting to "another bloated bureaucracy," paying significant salaries to people "far, far away from remote communities".

"I'm quite happy to spoil the program of the elites and actually prioritise our most marginalised," she told Sky News.

"I'm sorry Senator Burney if that upsets Labor. If I'm a spoiler, so be it, I'm a spoiler.

"I'm not interested in that; I'm interested in common sense practical policies that are going to focus and prioritise our most marginalised."

Senator Liddle was equally critical, and said the government had made a mistake in taking away the cashless debit card (CDC).

"The minister in her interview talked about the Opposition playing a 'spoiler's role'. Well, I make no apologies for that when they've made an absolute mess of taking away the CDC in those trial parts where those communities wanted it," Senator Liddle told Sky News.

"Spoiler alert for the minister. We will call you into account when you don't act in a timely, responsible manner to these very obvious issues and when the evidence is there that you should have."

The CDC withdrawal was welcomed by many, but issues surrounding people purchasing alcohol and gambling have come out in the ABC, causing some to call for its reinstatement.

"I can tell you, I've been approached by many people who were cheering the end of that card who now say to me: 'Kerrynne, what can we do to get the card back into communities?'" Senator Liddle said in February, as reported by the ABC.

Senator Price has often gone against the grain from many First Nations voices - regardless of their political affiliation.

Whilst her position in rejecting the voice was backed by Indigenous people from both sides of the political spectrum, her criticism of self-determination and treaties is far less popular.

In the wake of a scathing productivity commission report into Closing the Gap, which encouraged governments to engage with Indigenous-led organisations and work towards self-determination, many groups welcomed the news.

However, Ms Price disagreed, stating in February: "To simply suggest that a group of Australians, based on their racial ethnicity, know what's best for that particular racial ethnicity, and determining that organisations who are run by majority of people with that ethnicity be given all the money and the responsibility doesn't actually mean it will produce any outcomes and we're seeing that over again:.

The Warlpiri/Celtic senator has also drawn the ire of Indigenous groups when she called for a Royal Commission into alleged sexual abuse in remote communities, which was rebuffed by a significant number of on-the-ground groups - which argued it would be expensive and unnecessary as the answers were already known - as well as the federal government.

The truth-telling bill, first introduced by Greens' senators David Shoebridge and Dorinda Cox, will seek to establish a 10-person commission, the majority of whom will be Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

The Albanese government promised $27 million at the last federal election towards the commission, with $7.8 being put aside in the 2022 budget to begin setting it up.

However, The Canberra Times reported on Monday that the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) has reduced the number of staff working on a national commission, throwing into doubt this commitment.