Yes campaign distances itself from Thomas Mayo comments

Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin and Linda Burney distance themselves from controversial comments by voice advocate.

Prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo is under pressure over comments suggesting that politicians would be punished for ignoring advice from the voice. Picture: Martin Ollman/NCA NewsWire

Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney have distanced themselves from comments made by prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo, who threatened that politicians would be punished if they ignore the voice advisory body.

Mr Mayo – who sits on the board of Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition which leads the Yes23 campaign – has previously said colonial institutions must be torn down and that the voice was a step towards “reparations and compensation”.

After The Australian revealed comments made by the militant unionist between 2020 and 2023, including calling John Howard a “bastard”, senior Yes campaigners on Tuesday called for a “respectful” conversation.

Mr Parkin said he had spoken with Mr Mayo – who co-authored The Voice to Parliament Handbook with veteran journalist Kerry O’Brien – and described him as a “great champion” who has been having these conversations for years.

But as the No campaign seized on Mr Mayo’s comments, he rejected any link between the voice and ‘Pay the Rent’, reparations and compensation, ruled-out punishing politicians and acknowledged the government and parliament of the day could say no to a voice advisory body.

“There was a bunch of leaders that actually met in Canberra (on Monday) talking about the need for the conversations to be respectful,” Mr Parkin told 2GB.

“We do come from a very broad church in this campaign … on some of these issues we’ve had differences of opinion over the past but when it comes to the voice and the focus on the referendum – everybody is united on that goal.

“We’re not always going to get it right … but the focus is absolutely on bringing people together in a respectful dialogue in the lead up to the referendum. He (Mayo) knows, we know what we need to do from here on in and that’s absolutely what we’re focused on.”

Senior Yes campaign sources told The Australian they strongly backed Mr Mayo and he would maintain a leading presence ahead of the likely October referendum.

Asked by the Coalition about Mr Mayo – a prominent figure on the Albanese government’s referendum working group – Ms Burney told Question Time “it is not about individual statements of people that are involved in this, I am not responsible for what other people say”.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher – representing Ms Burney – refused to rebuke Mr Mayo in the Senate: “I have always found him to be an articulate and passionate advocate for the voice.”

Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin says the debate over the voice referendum must be “respectful”. Picture: Liam Kidston

Amid tightening polls, concerns over the powers of the voice and calls from senior Yes campaigners to shift the focus from the voice to constitutional recognition, Mr Parkin said the advisory body was about taking “politics out” of Indigenous affairs.

Asked whether politicians should be punished, Mr Parkin said “I don’t think that’s the nature of the relationship that we want to set-up here”.

“We want to have a very constructive relationship with the government of the day and the parliament of the day to make sure we are actually getting on with the issues. This has been part of the problem so far, there’s just been too much politics around these issues. Indigenous affairs has been used as a political football,” he said.

Mr Parkin said while parliament would decide after the referendum whether voice positions are appointed or elected, Indigenous communities would hold voice members “to account if they start straying off on things that aren’t actually that important”.

“The voice is absolutely and has always been about getting to the nub of those real issues facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in communities. Health, education … everyone’s talking about their young people whether it’s in urban areas, remote areas.”

“That’s what the voice will be focused on. I can tell you, when I go out to the communities no-one is talking about defence or foreign affairs. They’re focused on the issues that affect their families and their communities on a day-to-day basis.”

Mr Parkin, who said Pay the Rent has “nothing to do with the voice”, acknowledged that polls were tightening: “I think that’s reflective of the nature of the debate so far. We haven’t been able to have the debate with the community as much as we’d like to. We’ve started putting that in process.”