Stunning backflip as top Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo launches bold new push for an Indigenous voice in parliament after Australia rejected the idea – but here’s why you DON’T get a say this time

A leading Voice campaigner has demanded the Indigenous representative body be established through a vote in Parliament after Aussies rejected the referendum.

Thomas Mayo, one of the most prominent Yes campaigners, said without a voice in parliament there would be no substantive progress on indigenous prosperity.

He is insisting that Labor and the Coalition create a Voice body through legislation, rather than writing it into the constitution.

That would negate the need to survey Australians and goes against the Yes campaigners’ argument that a legislated Voice could be too easily silenced.

“Something needs to be written into law, regardless of whether it’s in the Constitution or not,” Mayo said The Daily Telegraph.

“We are now at a low point because there is no representative body that can work with parliament with any authority and process to deliver bottom-up solutions.”

Mr Mayo accused the opposition of playing politics on Indigenous issues and urged them to offer their bipartisan support for a legislated vote.

His plea comes despite the Yes campaigner previously claiming a representative body for Indigenous Australians would be ineffective if introduced by law.

“It was easy for a hostile federal government to silence ATSIC (the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission) because it was just an Act of Parliament. The constitutional anchoring of a vote is different. This can only be achieved through a referendum, not a law,” he wrote Junke in July.

“A successful referendum will make it a permanent and politically powerful voice, thanks to the support of the Australian people.”

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Mayo for comment.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said a number of times that he would not legislate the body if it were defeated in the referendum.

The Voice was sensationally shot down when more than 60 percent of the country voted against the referendum on October 14.

“If Australians vote ‘no’, I don’t think it would be appropriate to say, ‘Oh well, you’ve had your say, but we’re going to legislate anyway,” Albanese said in the week leading up to the election. the poll.

“What we will do is respect the outcome of the referendum.”

Mayo has repeatedly blamed the coalition opposition led by Peter Dutton for the defeat of the Voice.

“Because of the political opportunism of Peter Dutton’s coalition, in 2023 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people felt like we were on trial, suspects for the crimes against us,” Mayo wrote in The Saturday Paper last year.

“Here we were, after a history of genocide, dispossession, ignorance and exclusion, with the divide widening because of the failed policies and damaging actions of parliament, mostly under the coalition, in a country we had civilized for tens of thousands of years. suddenly expected that we would have to answer for all these abuses as if we were the perpetrators ourselves.’

Despite the lack of a voice, Mr Mayo, a leading trade unionist, said things had improved for Indigenous Australians under the Albanian government, citing more kidney specialists in the Northern Territory and better housing.

“I think on the ground things have improved under Labour,” he said.

‘Labor is about making progress in a more genuine way. The coalition was in power for almost ten years and during that time things deteriorated. They had ample time to make progress in closing the rift, but were unable to do so.”

In last year’s annual Closing the Gap report, the Productivity Commission found deterioration in areas such as Indigenous early childhood development, with increases in prison rates, children in childcare and suicides.

However, the Commission noted that progress has been made in the areas of education and training, housing, employment and keeping young people out of detention.

It said the Northern Territory, Victoria and South Australia were the jurisdictions that particularly needed to pick up their game.

Late last year, Opposition Minister for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of being “missing” on Aboriginal issues since the Voice’s October 14 defeat.

“Where has he been on these issues? Shame on him when he came to Alice Springs in February and he hasn’t come back,” Senator Price said.

She said the Prime Minister has not even chaired a press conference on Aboriginal issues since October 22, a claim that appears to be supported by official government transcripts.

“Where are you, Albo?” she said.

Senator Price said there are pressing issues affecting remote communities.

She said that despite a hefty $250 million in funding announced to tackle anti-social behavior and youth crime in her home town of Alice Springs, “not much had changed on the ground”.

She recalled a friend telling her she was patrolling the city for her security job when her vehicle was rammed by a group of youths in a stolen car.

They then chased her and as a result she required hospital treatment.

She said there is still a crime wave in the area, but Mr Albanese has not been there since the start of this year, despite traveling to nearby Uluru in the days leading up to the referendum.