Warren Mundine


Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine is an Australian Aboriginal leader and politician. He was the National President of the Australian Labor Party, 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.

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. 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. He is also a descendant of Gumbaynggirr, Yuin and Irish people through his mother's family.

Political career

Mundine worked in the New South Wales public service, including a stint as the CEO of the New South Wales Native Title Service. In 1995, he successfully stood as an independent candidate for Dubbo City Council in central-west NSW, later becoming deputy mayor, a position he held until 2004. He was a long-time member of the ALP and before becoming national president of the party, he previously served as its senior vice-president and as a member of the Australian government's National Indigenous Council.
At the 2001 election, Mundine was placed third on the ALP senate ticket. He was unsuccessful in being elected to federal parliament. In 2004, Mundine again attempted to enter federal parliament but this time through the House of Representatives. He sought Labor Party preselection for the federal seat of Fowler but was not successful. The sitting Labor MP, Julia Irwin, retained preselection for the 2004 and 2007 federal elections. With an electoral redistribution before the 2007 federal election, Labor MP Laurie Ferguson switched to the federal seat of Werriwa after his electorate of Reid was abolished.
Mundine won the 2005 Bennelong Medal for service to the Aboriginal community. He 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. Mundine served one term as national president, stepping down in 2007.
Mundine is also a chairman of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation and the Chairman of the Australian Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.
Mundine expressed an interest in becoming Labor's first federal indigenous parliamentarian when Mark Arbib resigned from the Senate in March 2012, but Bob Carr was selected for the position. In November 2012, Mundine told The Australian newspaper that he had quit the Labor Party. He said 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. Mundine maintained his interest in indigenous advocacy in his role with Andrew Forrest's Pilbara Mining indigenous charity Generation One.
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. In January 2017, Mundine lost his position as chair of the council when it was dissolved by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
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. He was not elected.

Nuclear industrial advocacy

In the late 2000s, Mundine emerged as a public supporter of nuclear industrial development in Australia, arguing that nuclear power should not be ruled out of Australia's future energy mix in response to climate change. His former directorship of the Australian Uranium Association has attracted criticism from anti-nuclear lobbies. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, the Sydney Morning Herald named Mundine as a supporter of nuclear power. 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."

Outside of politics

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. A second season debuted on 2 September 2018 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. 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.

Personal life

In 1975 Mundine married Jenny Rose and they have two children. He 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. 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. After separating from Rose, Mundine gained custody of their two children.
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. The couple wed a second time in 2003, because when they first married it was not in a Catholic church but at St Andrew's Congregational Church in Balmain. This had bothered Mundine, so to celebrate 20 years together they renewed their vows at St Brigid's Catholic Church in Dubbo. Mundine said to The Catholic Weekly: "I pray to God every night, to thank him for what I have and talk about my issues and problems."
His second marriage broke down while he was serving on the Presidential Panel of the Australian Labor Party. When he spoke about his second divorce, Mundine had admitted he was the cause of the marriage breakdown, saying that he had succumbed to temptation and deserved the eventual outcome. He said: "I never thought of myself as a bloke who was attractive to women but after I became president 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." Riley, a senior lecturer in Aboriginal education at Sydney University, has remained silent on the disintegration of their marriage, but when asked about her view of Mundine's ongoing political career, she replied: "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."
In October 2013, Mundine married for the third time. His third wife, Elizabeth Henderson, is the divorced daughter of Anne and Gerard Henderson, directors of The Sydney Institute. Mundine has described his third marriage as the creation of "a new life".
Mundine is the cousin of boxer Tony Mundine and is a second cousin to Anthony Mundine, the boxer and footballer.