Thomas Mayo: Voice campaigner drops the F-bomb in fiery speech to tradies on a construction site: ‘We have a right’

Prominent Indigenous Voice campaigner Thomas Mayo has given a fiery speech to construction workers about why a Yes vote would be best for Australia.

Mayo, along with Aunt Violet Sheriden and MLA Rachel Stephen-Smith, spoke to workers at the Canberra Hospital expansion site on Wednesday at an event organized by the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).

The former Darwin Port Authority crane operator has a background in trade unions and became assistant national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) before becoming a contributor until the creation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in 2017.

“If we had no voice, we would be exploited, ignored and degraded,” Mayo told the crowd.

“We would not be able to promote our interests and get better wages and working conditions,” he said.

“We’re supposed to be, aren’t we? If you don’t have a voice, you suck.’

“That’s what we’re trying to do as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: establish a voice where we can speak with some unity and coherence and influence the decisions that are made about us and make some progress. It’s that simple.’

“Those same idiots who hate workers have come out and spread disinformation and lies (about the Voice),” Mayo added.

“This is the best thing we can do for this country: ‘Vote yes,’” he said as he led the crowd to the polls. Yes23 website.

Mayo was born in Darwin’s Larrakia Country, and grew up learning food hunting with his father and island dancing from the local Torres Strait Islander community of which he was a member.

Speaking to the Judicial College of Victoria earlier this year, Mayo said he was a “very quiet guy” who “never expected to do what I do”.

He said he is motivated by an “aversion to injustice,” and that he has learned most of what he knows “about solidarity and collective action” during his nearly two decades on the dock.

“My father and mother were not involved in politics in any way,” he said. “My father is the type who just wants to get on with it and say what all the complaining is about.”

‘It came from the older quays (which inspired me). I learned a lot from those union elders.’

Mayo argues that a Voice to Parliament would strengthen the country’s democracy and increase our social position in the rest of the world.

Despite criticism from the right, Mayo said Indigenous Australians are “not being heard at the moment… not a priority because we are not having a democratic impact”.

He argued that the disparities in life expectancy and higher incarceration rates further prove his point.

“To me it means justice,” he said. “It means recognizing what should have been recognized from the very beginning when Cook arrived.”

He helped draft the Uluru Declaration from the Heart, arguing that his people have ‘always put forward proposals to gain political representation – essentially a voice’.

‘We did the hard work. All that consensus building, the debates, the passionate discussions to reach mutual compromises. The nature of consensus is that you never get everything everyone wants.”

In November 2022, Mayo called journalist Kerry O’Brien to ask if he was interested in collaborating on his next book.

The recently published book is said to be a ‘guide’ for the Voice to Parliament, intended to answer the questions of the general public and filter out the unnecessary political infighting.

O’Brien told the audience at SWF that he had never done anything like this before, but it didn’t take him long to agree.

He said he has no doubt the Australian public largely wants the referendum to succeed.

If not, he said, “it will be a matter of confusion and fear – which is the whole strategy.”

“How obscene it is that some people will stoop to the lowest of the low to claim that Aboriginal people will use the vote to feather their nests,” he said.

“Look at the character of the people having these conversations to determine who is telling the truth and who is not… who do you believe?”

Uluru Youth Dialogue co-chair Bridget Cama on Wednesday drew parallels between First Nations people and other rural Australians who feel their voices are being ignored by city-oriented politicians.

“What we want is to live in the country to raise our families and contribute to the solutions,” Ms Cama told the Regional Australia Institute national summit in Canberra on Wednesday.

“We want to build our cities and communities in partnership with all Australians.

“In many ways our concerns that led to the proposed vote are the same as those of some regional Australians.”

Ms Cama said many Indigenous people were asking Australians to support the voice on behalf of the next generation, in the same way regional communities were pushing for better healthcare, education and opportunities.

“What we want is a better quality of life for the gang in regional and remote Australia,” she said.

‘We want our children and young people to see a future for themselves, where they live in community. Aboriginal people don’t want to move to Canberra or a big city to have their voices heard.”

Former shadow attorney general Julian Leeser, who resigned to support the vote and oppose the Liberals’ “no” position, used a speech in parliament to highlight the economic opportunities to close the gap.

He focused on the argument that politicians should not focus on Indigenous reconciliation during a cost-of-living crisis, suggesting the vote would immediately take pressure off the budget.

“It’s an opportunity to ensure we get more value for the money taxpayers spend on Indigenous affairs, where we have too little to show for all our efforts,” he told Parliament on Wednesday.

“I want to invite all Australians to lift up their eyes and see, despite their own challenges, the gap that is not being closed.”

Mr Leeser said he was “concerned as liberal” Indigenous Australians were not being given the chance to share in the country’s opportunities.

He pointed out that almost one in two Indigenous Australians were living on the poverty line, with an Indigenous employment rate of 49 per cent, compared to 75 per cent among non-Indigenous Australians.

“It’s the opportunities you get when you grow up in a peaceful and safe home, where the taps work, there’s food in the kitchen and there’s no alcohol abuse or violence,” he said.

‘Of being able to concentrate at school because you can hear and see well, you are not hungry, and you are not sleepy because you were walking on the street because it felt unsafe at home.’

Continuing his latest strong attack on his party’s position, Mr Leeser said the idea that the vote was dividing the country in two missed the point.

“The vote is not about special treatment or privileges, it is simply about trying to get Indigenous Australians on the same starting line as other Australians,” he said.

The referendum will take place on October 14.