The transformation of Thomas Mayo: How a ‘quiet fella’ became the face of the Yes campaign

For weeks, opponents of the Indigenous Voice to parliament have zeroed in on prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo.

The best-selling author and trade unionist became central to their claim that the Voice is a radical change to the nation’s Constitution, not merely an advisory body.

For a campaign that has struggled to gain momentum – the latest Resolve poll in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed it is heading for a defeat, with a support for the Voice among NSW voters falling below 50 per cent for the first time – Mayo has shown a rare ability to cut through.

Voice campaigner Thomas Mayo has become a lightning rod for the No campaign.Credit: Peter Rae

Mayo says opponents of the Voice are wrong – he would never describe his activism as radical.

“I’m doing these things because I really care about people and I don’t believe that’s a radical thing,” he tells this masthead.

“I think that’s something that is an Australian thing – to care and to do something to put a hand out and help a mate up.”

Despite the polls, Mayo remains optimistic. “I’m not worried about the polls. I’m more worried about speaking with as many Australians as I can between now and the referendum,” he says.

Last month, the No campaign unearthed two-year-old videos of Mayo calling for “reparations and compensation” for Indigenous Australians, as well as appearances in online forums run by an organisation which markets itself as the Communist Party of Australia.

Opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Price said the “shocking revelations” exposed the “aggressive and radical agenda behind the Voice”.

Mayo says his comments were from years ago, and that the Voice is about community priorities.

“I’ve been involved in this for a long time and there’s been many things said in the debates and discussions amongst people,” he says.

“Those things were said, but they’re not what I believe the Voice will focus on. It’s not what it’s about. It’s about the priorities in our communities – health, education, the environment, all of that stuff.

“Also importantly, the parliament still decides everything – the Voice is an advisory body. So various groups are going to have all sorts of different ideas. But ultimately, the parliament decides what happens in the country.”

‘I didn’t have a voice’

A softly spoken Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man who has lived his whole life in Darwin, Mayo is in many ways an unlikely target for the No campaign.

The father-of-six rarely hurls insults at the No campaign and he doesn’t bite back at attacks.

And unlike many other prominent Voice campaigners a generation older, the 46-year-old didn’t arrive at Indigenous activism through academia or the land rights movement. Mayo became an activist later in life.

“I was always a quiet fella,” Mayo says.

“People thought I didn’t have a voice at all with how quiet I was, whether it was at footy or in the workplace.”

Mayo was a wharf labourer from the age of 17, before finding his voice after the 1998 waterfront dispute with Patrick Stevedores when he became a union delegate, and then an official with the Maritime Union of Australia.

Mayo at a May Day rally in Port Kembla in May 2023.

In 2014, Tony Abbott’s $500 million in cuts to Indigenous programs turned Mayo’s attention to campaigning for First Nations people in the Northern Territory.

He grew increasingly frustrated that Canberra policymaking seemed unaffected by campaigns on the ground and became a prominent advocate for a constitutionally enshrined Voice to parliament.

In 2017, Mayo signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and was chosen to carry the canvas of the statement around the country – often turning up to communities with it rolled up in a tube under his arm.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart.

For the past six years, he has worked full-time on the campaign for the Voice, and served as a key advisor to the Albanese government as part of the referendum working group.

At some point between October and December, Australians will vote on the referendum to recognise Indigenous Australians in the Constitution by enshrining a Voice to parliament.

The remit of the body – which would be able to make representations to the parliament and the government on issues that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – is at the centre of the debate.

When Anthony Albanese announced the wording of the constitutional amendment on March 23, Mayo stood directly to the prime minister’s left.

Some in the Yes campaign privately concede Mayo’s background in the union movement provides a convenient target for opponents.

Mayo next to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese when the wording of the constititonal amendment was announced.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Others suspect he is targeted because of his success.

Mayo’s book,The Voice to Parliament Handbook: All the Detail You Need – co-authored with former ABC presenter Kerry O’Brien – sold more than 50,000 copies in just two months. A bestseller in Australia is 5000 copies.

Readings managing director Mark Rubbo says it is his company’s top-selling book for 2023.

“Something that is topical often only has a relatively short life, but this has just got a momentum all of its own,” he says.

Mayo’s publisher Sandy Grant, the boss of Hardie Grant, says he was surprised Mayo become a lightning rod for the No campaign because of his innate calmness.

“He is a person of passion and integrity, and has been applying an immense amount of time, thought and calm intelligence to the whole process,” Grant says.

Mayo has written six books but says he only started reading books concertedly in his 20s.

“It wasn’t until I had something that I really believed in that I was able to write.”

Since the book was published, he gets recognised all around Australia.

Leading No campaigner Warren Mundine says when the Yes campaign elevated Mayo it became fair game to scrutinise him.

“He is central to their campaign. He talks everywhere, he does just as many events as I do, and he stands next to Albo every time they do a press conference,” Mundine says.

“So the public need to know what his views are. As far as I can see... he’s from the [Maritime Union of Australia], he’s just a communist who’s going to make some really radical changes with the Voice.

“He was [an asset for the Yes campaign] until we discovered what his personal views were. He’s become an asset to us.”

Leading Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton, a member of the government’s referendum working group alongside Mayo, says he is “never angry, always calm and logical”.

“He is not, and has never been, a communist,” she says. “In my opinion, their attacks on him are racist and also outright lies.”

On July 6, an advertisement appeared in the Australian Financial Review which included a cartoon portrayal of Mayo dancing for money, ridiculing big corporate donations to the Yes campaign.

Nine, which also owns this masthead, apologised for publishing the ad by conservative lobby group Advance Australia which was widely condemned as racist.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who quit the federal opposition frontbench over his party’s opposition to the Voice, said he believed Mayo was central to the No campaign because he was being made a “trope for the ‘angry Aboriginal man’ who wants to tear down the country”.

“The spliced videos of the No case using Thomas Mayo’s words are meant to get you angry, and get you voting against a person, even though this person is not on the ballot paper,” Leeser said in a speech on Monday.

Mayo with co-author Kerry O’Brien.

Mayo says he agrees with Leeser, describing the Liberal MP as a “man of integrity”.

“I think he is someone that is similar to me – just doing what he knows is right. And I think Julian’s comments should be listened to.”

Referendum loss ‘unthinkable’

After speaking to tens of thousands of Australians over the past six years about the Voice, Mayo says he is confident the referendum will succeed despite what the public polls have shown over recent months.

“We’re in a winning position,” he says.

Mayo says that he has been able to convince most Australians who are against the proposal when he explains to them what the advisory body will do.

“From my experience speaking with people who are in a No position – if they’re genuine about understanding things and listening, then they tend to support it because there’s nothing to lose in this,” he says.

Mayo says he isn’t contemplating what will happen if the referendum is unsuccessful.

“It’s just unthinkable. We must succeed,” he says.

“Imagine saying no to what the truth of this is? Just recognising that Indigenous people have been here for 60,000 years and to ensure that we have an advisory say to the parliament that makes decisions about us.

“I can’t contemplate that going down.”

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