Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo slams No advocate Ben Abbatangelo over Indigenous Voice to Parliament stance

Voting architect and Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo has criticized an Indigenous activist for a comment he made about why he voted No in the referendum.

Ben Abbatangelo, a proud Gunaikurnai and Wotjobaluk man and writer, was initially a Yes voter but has since changed his position to a hard No.

He is considered to be in the “progressive” No camp, which also includes independent Senator Lidia Thorpe, because he believes the Voice is “too small, too slow” and not doing enough for Indigenous people.

Mr Abbatangelo: A no vote would be a ‘regenerative moment for the country’, comparing the referendum to a natural disaster.

“You know, like a forest fire is going to come through and destroy the whole scene. But when you come back to that spot six months later, you see that greenery bursting through,” he told ABC’s Four Corners on Monday night.

Mr Mayo fired back at the comments in a heated Instagram post in which he took aim at “progressive”. No voters labeled them “radical.”

“A no vote would be the moment of recovery for the country is the most backward thing I have ever heard from a so-called progressive,” he wrote.

‘Especially without a tangible ‘how’, that is different from what we are trying now. The so-called Progressive No is so radical, it is conservative.’

Mr Mayo stressed the need for better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and called on the ‘progressive’ No camp to propose an alternative solution.

“We urgently need better outcomes in health, education, employment and justice,” he said.

“If you’re a progressive ‘No’, why don’t you explain what, how, who, when you’re going to get better outcomes for Indigenous people without a nationally representative body.”

“And if your response is no different than what we’ve already done, everything we’ve tried and failed so far, then clearly you’re just maintaining the status quo with your ‘No.’

“Seriously, a ‘progressive no vote’ is an oxymoron,” he added.

Mr Abbatangelo elaborated on his reasons for switching to the No camp on ABC’s Four Corners.

“The idea that the people who stole this country and then directly benefited from it are now going to a referendum to think about recognizing the people they stole it from is insane,” he said.

He rejected the idea that the advisory body would be a positive step for the indigenous community.

‘That’s not true and we don’t have time. This slow incremental change is killing us,” he said.

‘I don’t want to take a small step, in quicksand, with my feet tied together, I want to lift us out.

‘I want to dream and remember what it is like to live free, autonomous and independent and I want to maintain my dignity by pursuing that.’

Prominent Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo (pictured) slammed comments made by Mr Abbatangelo on the Voice to the ABC, describing them as ‘backward’ and his position as ‘radical’

The referendum will ask Australians whether they support a plan to enshrine Indigenous voices in the Constitution in an effort to achieve better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (pictured are Yes23- supporters seen at the Yes campaign launch in Brisbane)

Overall support has fallen to a new low, with every state except Tasmania set to vote ‘no’ on a constitutionally established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body.

A Resolve Political Monitor survey published in Nine newspapers on Monday found that 43 percent of voters supported a plan to enshrine indigenous voices in the constitution, a drop of 20 percentage points from a year ago.

The percentage of Australians in favor of the plan has fallen for the fifth month in a row.

It is also the third month in a row that the ‘no’ vote has come first.

Since the last survey, Victoria has moved to a majority of ‘No’ states, leaving Tasmania as the only jurisdiction left in the ‘Yes’ camp.

A successful referendum requires a yes vote from more than 50 percent of voters in four of the six states.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said there are still many undecided voters who could be convinced when asked about the poll results.

“We’re going to ask them to vote ‘yes’ because this recognizes 65,000 years of Australian history,” she told Seven’s Sunrise on Monday.

‘This idea came from the Aboriginals, more than 80 percent of them support it. This is not a committee that has a veto over parliament. It doesn’t stop things from happening.

The Voice referendum will take place on October 14.