Marxist Radical a Key Actor Behind ‘The Voice’

Marxist Radical a Key Actor Behind ‘The Voice’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese surrounded by members of the First Nations Referendum Working Group (including Thomas Mayor on the right of Albanese) speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 23, 2023. AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Daniel Y. Teng
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A prominent Indigenous activist and advocate of changing Australia’s Constitution has been revealed praising communism’s influence in the “struggle” of Aboriginal people, talking about punishing politicians, and pushing for reparations to be paid to Indigenous Australians.

Thomas Mayo (or Mayor) is the national Indigenous officer of the Maritime Union of Australia. He was the author of the Voice to Parliament Handbook and is a member of the prime minister’s referendum working group for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
Mayo has written for major newspapers and spoken on Indigenous rights to institutions like the National Australia Bank.
Later this year, Australians will vote at a national referendum to decide whether to alter the Constitution to change its preamble to recognise Indigenous peoples and to also set up an advisory body to Parliament.

This near-permanent advisory body would have the power to make “representations” to the executive and legislative arms of government on all matters deemed relevant to Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders.

Advocates see The Voice as the latest advancement in reconciliation and dealing with chronic issues in Indigenous communities, such as unemployment, domestic violence, alcoholism, youth crime, and welfare dependency.

Mayo Issues Threats of Punishment, Says Rent Should be Paid to Indigenous Australians

According to a series of videos uncovered by the “No” campaign group, Advance Australia, Mayo can be seen discussing and drawing upon Marxist ideas of class struggle in his vision for The Voice.
In the Address to the Search Foundation in August 2021, Mayo says the body would help decide what laws and funding are needed for Aboriginal communities and also to “punish politicians that ignore our advice.”

While in another speech on March 2022, Mayo spoke about the impact and influence of communism on Aboriginal activism.

“I learned a lot about the importance not just of the Communist Party, about unions to my own people’s struggle,” he told the Address to the Search Foundation, Snapshots of Communists in Australian History, which celebrated 100 years of communism in Australia.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, surrounded by members of the First Nations Referendum Working Group (Thomas Mayo to his right), speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 23, 2023. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, surrounded by members of the First Nations Referendum Working Group (Thomas Mayo to his right), speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on March 23, 2023. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

“I know you comrades that are listening today will continue to support our struggle, and you are an important part of the struggle just like our communist elders have been an important part of our struggle,” he said.

“There is nothing that we can do that is more powerful than building a First Nations’ Voice, a black institution, a black political force to be reckoned with that has power and authority over our own affairs, our own political prioritising.”

In February 2020, Mayo said The Voice and Uluru Statement from the Heart was just the “first step” before talking about future taxpayer-funded reparations to Indigenous communities.

“[The Voice and Uluru Statement] doesn’t say ’this is the answer,‘ it says ’this is how we can get there,’” he told the Address to the Search Foundation.

“‘Pay the Rent’, for example, how do we do that in a way that is transparent and that actually sees reparations and compensation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people beyond what we say and do at a rally?”

He also said that a “Truth-telling inquiry” would eventually lead to the “abolishment of the old colonial institutions.”

Mayo would tell a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020 a similar message.
People march in solidarity with protests in the United States in Melbourne, Australia on June 6, 2020. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
People march in solidarity with protests in the United States in Melbourne, Australia on June 6, 2020. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

“I know that we must turn this action into votes, we must turn it into changing the rulebook of the nation so that our voice will always be heard in the centre of decision-making and we make sure that black lives matter,” he said.

He also railed against former Prime Minister John Howard for the dissolution of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

“Every time, comrades, that we have established a voice as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the bastards have taken it away from us,” Mayo said.

“And let me tell you a story about how we can relate to that. John Howard, do you remember that bastard? ... Do you think he wants normal people, workers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to have a voice?” he told a May Day Rally in Port Kembla in 2023.

Yet Indigenous leader Warren Mundine, a former Labor Party president, has said the Commission’s 2005 removal was due to its lack of impact on the ground and the falling number of Indigenous people taking part in the voting for its members.

In response to Mayo’s videos, Indigenous Country Liberal Senator Jacinta Price said this was the reason why more information and clarity were needed around voting for The Voice.

National's Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price prior to being interviewed by television at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 28, 2022. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
National's Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price prior to being interviewed by television at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on July 28, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
“It’s the reason why the Albanese government will not provide any detail on what The Voice actually will be,” she told Sky News Australia. “Because there is an underlying agenda.”

Mayo said his videos were part of his travels around the country speaking to different people to help “bridge the gap by ­helping them to see it from their perspective.”

“I stand by this referendum being a unifying proposal, it is about peace and love, and that is purely my interest for this ­country,” he told The Australian newspaper.

Indigenous Activism a Cover for Communist Infiltration of Australia

Meanwhile, the emergence of Mayo’s speeches also highlights the rarely discussed links between communist party members and their deliberate infiltration of Indigenous activism.

Former Communist Party of Australia member Geoff McDonald exposed how the Aboriginal “land rights” movement was a target of Marxists.

People hold up placards at a Black Lives Matter protest to express solidarity with U.S. protestors in Melbourne on June 6, 2020. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)
People hold up placards at a Black Lives Matter protest to express solidarity with U.S. protestors in Melbourne on June 6, 2020. William West/AFP via Getty Images
“I do not disagree with the concept of special areas of land being kept for Aboriginals. But the issue is not really about land rights, as I learned first during my training with the Communist Party,” he wrote in his book Red Over Black (1982).

McDonald, now deceased, said he heard communist leaders and politicians Jack Miles and Lance Sharkey talk about how this was the “first step towards making Australia a Communist country.”

“Communists describe the Aborigines as victims of ‘colonial imperialism’ and claim that they must be ‘liberated.’ But only to enable the eventual establishment of communist internationalism to triumph.”

Part of the strategy, which has played out around the world, is to gradually weaken the existing institutions of government through internal division and for it to eventually be taken over by a different ideology or regime. To defend against this, McDonald said Australia needed to embrace “commonly held values” and stand by those ideals.

The views of McDonald’s were echoed by Albanian expatriates to Australia, Dr. Zekri and Tina Palushi, who said The Voice proposal carried echoes of Marxism.

“The class system was implemented in order to incite Albanian citizens to hate and fight against each other, and I must admit that the strategy worked very well for the Albanian Communist Party. Because in this way, they managed to keep the people divided while [the party] worked together further pushing their agenda,” said Dr. Zekri.

“That’s why we see The Voice not as a gesture of kindness but as a Marxist movement with specific goals that, if successful, will see the good Aboriginal people become the greatest losers,” he previously told The Epoch Times.

Daniel Y. Teng
Daniel Y. Teng
Writer
Daniel Y. Teng is based in Brisbane, Australia. He focuses on national affairs including federal politics, COVID-19 response, and Australia-China relations. Got a tip? Contact him at [email protected].
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