Warren Mundine

Warren Mundine AO
National President of the Labor Party
In office 26 January 2006 – January 2007
Preceded by	Barry Jones
Succeeded by	John Faulkner
Personal details
Born	Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine (1956-08-11) 11 August 1956 (age 65) Grafton, New South Wales, Australia
Political party	Liberal Party (2019–present)
Other political affiliations	Labor Party (1995–2012)
Spouse(s)	Jenny Ross (m. 1975; div. 1982–1983) Lynette Riley ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 2008)​ Elizabeth Henderson ​ (m. 2013)​
Children	10
Alma mater	South Australia Institute of Technology

Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine AO (born 11 August 1956 in Grafton, New South Wales) is an Australian Aboriginal leader and politician. He was the National President of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), but quit the party in 2012. Mundine was appointed chairman of the Coalition government's Indigenous Advisory Council by then-prime minister, Tony Abbott. Mundine was the Liberal Party's unsuccessful candidate for the marginal seat of Gilmore on the south coast of New South Wales in the 2019 Australian federal election.^[1][2]

Early life[]

A member of the Bundjalung people, the traditional owners of much of coastal northern New South Wales, Mundine was the ninth of eleven children, of a family consisting of eight boys and three girls.^[3] Through his mother, he is also a descendant of the Gumbaynggirr, Yuin, and Irish peoples through his mother's family.^[4] Mundine is the cousin of boxer Tony Mundine and is a second cousin to Anthony Mundine, the boxer and footballer.^[5]

In 1963, his family settled in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn. Mundine went to the Catholic Benedict Marist Brothers College and worked as a fitter and turner after leaving school.^[3] Mundine worked as a barman at night and as an office trolley boy during the day, and later attended night college to earn his Higher School Certificate.^[6] Following a job at the Australian Taxation Office, Mundine moved to Adelaide, studying at the South Australian Institute of Technology, which later became the University of South Australia. Afterwards, Mundine would work in the New South Wales public service, including a stint as the CEO of the New South Wales Native Title Service

Political career[]

In 1995, Mundine began his foray into politics as an independent candidate for the City Council of Dubbo in central-west New South Wales. He was the first Aborginal to serve on the body,^[7] and would later become deputy mayor of Dubbo.^[8]

ALP career[]

At the 2001 election, Mundine was placed third on the Australian Labor Party (New South Wales) Senate ticket. In 2004, Mundine sought to stand as the ALP candidate for the Division of Fowler in the House of Representatives, but lost the preselection battle to sitting Labor MP, Julia Irwin.

Mundine succeeded Barry Jones as President of the ALP, beginning his term on 28 January 2006, and became the first indigenous Australian to serve as president of an Australian political party.^[9] During his tenure, Mundine pushed for the selection of candidates of Aboriginal background.^[10] Mundine would serve just one term as national president, stepping down in 2007.^[3] In March 2012, Mundine expressed an interest in becoming Labor's first federal Aboriginal Member of Parliament following the resignation of Mark Arbib from the Senate.

Following the selection of former Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr to replace Arbib, Mundine would leave the Labor Party. In an interview with The Australian. Mundine explained that he had been a supporter of "Hawke-Keating Labor, where it was about economic development, and progress, and working with unions to get good outcomes for everyone", but that the ALP by 2012 was "no longer the party I joined" and had failed to keep up with the conservative parties in selecting indigenous candidates.

Liberal Party career[]

Following the election of the Tony Abbott-led Liberal-National coalition in 2013, Abbott appointed Mundine chairman of the Australian government's Indigenous Advisory Council.^[3] In January 2017, Mundine lost his position as chair of the council when it was dissolved by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.^[11]

Mundine was announced as the Liberal Party's candidate for the seat of Gilmore in the 2019 election on 22 January 2019, after joining the party the same day.^{[12][1][13][14]} He was not elected.^[2]

Political views[]

Nuclear industrial advocacy[]

In the late 2000s, Mundine emerged as a public supporter of nuclear industrial development in Australia,^[15] arguing that nuclear power should not be ruled out of Australia's future energy mix in response to climate change.^[15] His former directorship of the Australian Uranium Association has attracted criticism from anti-nuclear lobbies.^[16] Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, the Sydney Morning Herald named Mundine as a supporter of nuclear power.^[17] Mundine wrote in an opinion editorial published in the Australian Financial Review in 2012:

"By looking after the full life cycle of the uranium, with the support of the traditional owners of the lands on which it is mined and stored, not only will we play a responsible role within the global community, but we can ensure that Australian uranium is not sold to states seeking to produce weapons."^[18]

Outside of politics[]

Mundine maintained his interest in indigenous advocacy in his role with Andrew Forrest's Pilbara Mining indigenous charity Generation One.^[19] Mundine co-hosted a 12-part program, Mundine Means Business, from 12 December 2017 on Sky News Live, focusing on successful indigenous Australians in business.^[20] A second season debuted on 2 September 2018^[21] supported by a grant totalling $220,000 from the Coalition government, running from 18 June 2018 to 1 August 2019, supporting 15 percent of the season's production expenses.^[22] Mundine has received legal advice that this grant would not preclude him from being a candidate for the next federal election under Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia.^[22]

Personal life[]

Marriage and family life[]

In 1975, Mundine would marry his first wife, Jenny Rose, with whom he has two children. After separating from Rose, Mundine gained custody of their two children.^[6] In 1983 Mundine met his second wife Lynette Riley, marrying her in 1984. They raised seven children: two from Mundine's first marriage, four of their own and a foster child.^[6] They initially married at St Andrew's Congregational Church in Balmain, and in 2003 remarried at St Brigid's Catholic Church in Dubbo.^[6] A devout Catholic, Mundine would tell The Catholic Weekly: "I pray to God every night, to thank him for what I have and talk about my issues and problems."^[6] Mundine's marriage to Riley would break down during his presidency of the ALP, explaining that he caused the relationship to end through succumbing to temptation:

I never thought of myself as a bloke who was attractive to women but after I became president [of the ALP] it was like I became sexy to some people. And if you look at pictures of me back then, I was 30 kg heavier, so I don't really get it. But I was getting offers. And the ego got the better of me and I took one of those offers, and I got what I deserved, which was a divorce."^[23]

In October 2013, Mundine would marry for a third time, describing it as the beginning of "a new life".^[6]. His third wife, Elizabeth Henderson, is a white woman who is the child of Anne and Gerard Henderson, directors of The Sydney Institute. His ex-wife Riley, a lecturer in Aboriginal education at Sydney University, remained largely silent on the disintegration of her marriage with Mundine in the public eye. However, in 2013, she gave a rare interview on the subject, stating that "I think he has sold out his family and his culture. I think he gave up his good Aboriginal wife and kids so he could do that."^[24]

Honours[]

Mundine is also a chairman of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation^[25] and the Chairman of the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.^[26] Mundine won the 2005 Bennelong Medal for service to the Aboriginal community.

Further reading[]

Mundine, Warren; Grant, Stan, 1963-, (author of foreword.) (2018), Warren Mundine in black + white (Updated ed.), Pantera Press, ISBN 978-1-925700-12-1CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

References[]

External links[]

• ALP biography
• "Labor's great black hope", The Australian, December 2005
• VIDEO Warren Mundine and Marcia Langton talk about the need for a new dialogue on Indigenous Affairs on ABC FORA