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Nyunggai Warren Stephen Mundine (born 11 August 1956) is an Australian businessman, political strategist, advocate for Indigenous affairs, and former politician. Starting his political career in 1995, Mundine became the first Indigenous person to serve on the City Council of Dubbo in New South Wales. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 2006 to 2007 but quit the party in 2012. In 2013, 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.
, Mundine was a lead campaigner for the successful "No" campaign in the lead-up to the 2023 Australian referendum on the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
He holds various roles in Indigenous initiatives, including Andrew Forrest's Generation One, and received the Officer of the Order of Australia in 2016.
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. Through his mother, he is also a descendant of the Yuin and Irish people peoples. He is the younger brother of the inaugural Elder of the Australian Army Roy Mundine, social justice champion Kaye Mundine, and artist Djon Mundine, the cousin of boxer Tony Mundine, second cousin of Anthony Mundine, the boxer and footballer and Uncle to the CEO of Reconciliation Australia Karen Mundine.
In 1963, his family settled in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn. Mundine went to the Roman Catholic Benedict Marist Brothers College, and was a fitter and turner after leaving school. 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.
Following a job at the Australian Taxation Office, Mundine moved to Adelaide where he earned a community development diploma at South Australian Institute of Technology. He commenced, but did not complete, a qualification in law.
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.Australian Labor Party (2006). Warren Mundine Begins Term As ALP National President . Retrieved 28 May 2006. During his tenure, Mundine pushed for the selection of candidates of Aboriginal background. Mundine served just one term as national president, stepping down in 2007. In March 2012, he expressed an interest in becoming Labor's first federal Aboriginal member of federal parliament, following the resignation of Mark Arbib from the Senate.
After the selection of former Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr to replace Arbib, Mundine left the Labor Party. In an interview with The Australian, Mundine explained that he had been a supporter of "Bob Hawke-Paul Keating Labor, which was about economic development and progress, and working with unions to get good outcomes for everyone", but that, by 2012, the ALP was "no longer the party I joined" and had failed to keep up with the conservative parties in selecting Indigenous candidates.
On 22 January 2019, at the behest of the prime minister, Scott Morrison, the New South Wales state executive of the Liberal Party installed Mundine as candidate for the seat of Gilmore in the 2019 federal election, although he had only joined the party that week. The state executive waived the usual waiting period for new party members, and withdrew the endorsement of Grant Schultz, who had been preselected as the party's candidate eight months previously. Mundine failed to be elected, and Gilmore was one of only three government seats won by the Labor Party at the election.
Mundine nominated to contest Bradfield in the 2025 federal election, but lost preselection to Gisele Kapterian.
Mundine is associated with the conservative faction of the NSW Liberal Party.
Mundine wrote in an opinion piece 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."
Recognise a Better Way was led by Mundine and included former Nationals deputy PM John Anderson, and former Keating government minister Gary Johns. The campaign, launched in January 2023, was set up by a group called the Voice No Case Committee. The committee included four Indigenous members: Mundine; Price (who later left the group); founder of the Kings Creek Station Ian Conway; and Bob Liddle, owner of Kemara enterprises.
Recognise a Better Way then merged into a new campaign, Australians for Unity, which Mundine co-founded with Jacinta Nampijinpa Price on 11 May 2023.
From 12 December 2017, Mundine co-hosted a 12-part program on Sky News Live, Mundine Means Business, 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 received legal advice that the grant would not preclude him from being a candidate for the next federal election under Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia.
Other roles have included:
In 1983, he 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. They initially married at St Andrew's Congregational Church in Balmain, and in 2003 renewed their vows at St Brigid's Catholic Church in Dubbo. A devout Catholic, Mundine told The Catholic Weekly that he prayed every night. His marriage to Riley broke down during his presidency of the ALP, after he cheated on his wife more than once. Riley, a lecturer in Aboriginal education at Sydney University, remained largely silent about the disintegration of her marriage with Mundine but, in 2013 she gave a rare interview on the subject.
In October 2013, Mundine married for a third time, to corporate lawyer Elizabeth Henderson, describing it as the beginning of "a new life".
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