Nine million voted 'No' to the Voice. Now its most high-profile architect Thomas Mayo reveals what he REALLY thinks of them - and his message for every Australian

Thomas Mayo calls for 'political games' to stop  He says No vote does not mean 'no progress' READ MORE: Push for legislated Voice 

The public face of the ‘Yes’ campaign has called on Australians who voted ‘No’ in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament to push for better outcomes for Aboriginal people – even if they don’t want an advisory body added to the Constitution.

Thomas Mayo, the highest-profile leader of the Yes23 campaign after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, told Daily Mail Australia he accepted the referendum defeat and understood most Australians don’t want constitutional change.

However, this isn’t the end of the story: he still believes the majority of his fellow Australians want to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

‘I accept that a majority of Australians voted No, but it doesn’t mean we don’t stop trying to improve the opportunity for our children to inherit a country that’s reconciled with equal outcomes for Indigenous people,’ he said.

‘I want those who voted No, [and] who still want to close the gap for Indigenous people, to reject the notion that No meant “no progress”.

Thomas Mayo (pictured fishing in Darwin) has reflected on the Voice referendum defeat

‘This is too important for us to be blueing over what happened in the referendum; we have to move forward.’

Mr Mayo stressed the importance of pushing for ‘better policies and legislation to close the gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, adding that he still believes most ‘No’ voters do care about First Nations people – even if they baulked at the idea of amending the Constitution.

‘I don’t think that people who voted No don’t want progress on this, the great majority of them,’ he said.

‘[We need] to stop playing political games with Indigenous people’s lives and just get on with the urgent work.’

Mr Mayo now believes it is crucial for the two sides of the acrimonious Voice debate to talk to each other.

‘I think a lot of No people are still interested in seeing improvement,’ he said.

‘I think they learned a lot through the referendum and are misinformed.

After spending only 25 days at home last year Mr Mayo has been taking the chance to enjoy family time (pictured with 12-year-old Ruby)

‘I hope they keep looking and find the truth of these things that we don’t get free cars and we don’t get all of this stuff that people have been told.

‘We weren’t seeking to take people’s backyards or farms, and the words for the change in the Constitution weren’t going to do those things.’

Mr Mayo has called for an Indigenous advisory body to federal parliament to be legislated into existence despite the referendum loss.

He believes this is not a ‘demand’ but simply ‘common sense’.

In fact, a legislated Voice was even suggested by the No campaign before the referendum.

‘At every opportunity they [No voters] should be expecting that politicians listen to Indigenous communities about the solutions,’ he said.

‘That’s important. It remains common sense they should do that.’

He said both major political parties had supported a legislated Voice for about a decade, despite the Coalition opposing the Voice referendum.

‘Both have supported legislating the means to work together with Indigenous people on the basis that there’s general agreement that listening to the people they make decisions about is the best way to get things right,’ he said.

Mr Mayo noted a milestone that led to the referendum was the 2015 Kirribilli Statement, made by 40 Indigenous leaders – including No campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine – after they met with then Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

While he accepts there will be no constitutionally enshrined advisory body, one of Mr Mayo’s great regrets about the referendum is the fact Australia still has not joined the many nations to recognise Indigenous peoples in their founding documents. 

‘We did lose that once-in-a-lifetime chance to take that step and catch up with the rest of the world,’ he said.

Mr Mayo (pictured centre) stands behind Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during a press conference in Canberra last year

On a personal level, Mr Mayo said he had no regrets about his role in the campaign, which saw him go from a little-known Northern Territory official with the Maritime Union of Australia to a household name.

‘I don’t have regrets because it was a collective decision for us to pursue that out of the Uluru Statement [from the Heart] and it was a rare opportunity where there was a government and a prime minister that listened to that request from a majority of Indigenous people,’ he said.

‘I don’t regret it also because I know that by the numbers from the remote polling booths, where predominantly Indigenous people reside and voted, there was a majority Yes vote.’

‘It was something Indigenous people wanted. It was something that would’ve been good for Indigenous people, and we had to try because this is an urgent matter.’

While he admitted ‘there are always things’ that could have been done better in the campaign, he did not want to conduct a post-mortem of why the Yes case was rejected by more than 60 per cent of Australians on October 14.

He said there had been many personal attacks against him, but he did not let them get under his skin.

‘At the end of the day, I knew what I was doing was the right thing to do and it was fair,’ he said.

‘I understood that people were trying to cause a reaction from me that would be hurtful to the campaign that was ultimately simply about giving people an advisory Voice that would have taken nothing from any Australian.

‘That’s all that kept me going every day. They couldn’t touch me because I knew what their strategy was, which was to try [to] make me stop advocating. To intimidate.

‘I saw it happening not just to myself but to a lot of especially Indigenous people who spoke up in support of the referendum. That’s what kept me going, because I knew it was right.

The Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man has been given long-service leave from his union job and intends to spend the time writing a book on the path ahead for Indigenous issues at his home in Darwin.

Mr Mayo spent all but 25 days on the road last year campaigning for the Indigenous Voice

Also he will be catching up on family time, having spent only 25 days at home last year as he relentlessly campaigned for the Voice.

Mr Mayo has five children, three older ones and two aged 10 and 12.

‘The young ones missed me,’ Mr Mayo said.

Mr Mayo said even though it was very humid in Darwin waiting for the wet season, this was his favourite part of the year.

He recently described taking a fishing trip with his 12-year-daughter Ruby and son Will in a December article for the Saturday Paper.

‘On a “build up” day like this, there’s barely a whisper of wind,’ he wrote.

‘The sea’s surface lays like foil on a tray in the oven. Beneath lurk crocodiles, sharks and box jellyfish.

‘The clouds give no relief from the heat of the sun, nor does the small canvas canopy on the boat. The humidity makes the air feel like hot soup.’

‘Yet for all the uncomfortable heat, this is where I had longed to be as I travelled the country during the protracted and intense referendum campaign.’