Warren Mundine’s daughter backs Yes campaign for Indigenous Voice to Parliament

The daughter of leading No campaigner Warren Mundine has spoken out strongly in favor of The Voice as she accused her father of not doing what is ‘morally right’.

Garigarra Riley-Mundine, 31, is one of seven children Mundine had with ex-wife and Indigenous educator Dr. Lynette Riley during a 26-year marriage that ended in divorce in 2008.

Ms Riley-Mundine said her father’s opposition to the Voice “goes against what I think is morally right, and how I was raised and the family I come from.”

She said the family values ​​instilled by her “staunch trade unionist” grandfather were “to do everything we could to ensure that future generations had it better than what we have now.”

Speaking at the National Press Club on Tuesday, Mr Mundine called the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the document calling for the Voice, a “symbolic declaration of war”.

Mrs. Riley-Mundine, who told it The guard she does not have a ‘strong relationship with her father’, has strongly rejected this.

“It hurt because I feel like the Uluru Declaration came from a place of unity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” she says.

‘We don’t try to adopt anything; we are literally just asking for a vote.

“And we just want to unite this country because when we are empowered and our communities are strengthened, all of Australia is empowered and strengthened.”

Ms Riley-Mundine accused her father and other No supporters of waging a two-pronged fear campaign.

She said they had told non-Indigenous Australians that the Voice would have negative impacts on the wider community, but they had also told Indigenous Australians that it would allow the government to control them and strip them of their sovereignty.

However, she insisted the proposal was entirely positive.

‘I see the Voice to Parliament and the Uluru Statement from the Heart as an outstretched hand to say: ‘Help us help ourselves. We want to have a voice in our future and in the policies and programs that affect us,” Ms. Riley- Mundine said.

Ms Riley-Mundine also expressed her disappointment at her father’s failure to expose a comedy act at the right-wing CPAC event in August that “recognised” the traditional owners of “violent black men”.

‘Corporate comedian’ Rodney Marks also described famous First Fleet liaison Bennelong as a ‘woman basher’ during the ‘comedy skit’.

“(Warren Mundine) must have certainly been hurt by those words. I can’t imagine any black man who wouldn’t be hurt by these words,” Ms Mundine said.

‘I found it very difficult to hear. As a Black woman, I obviously have strong opinions on these things regardless of who my connections are, but being surrounded by strong Black men who I love made my heart ache hearing these words.”

Speaking at the National Press Club on Tuesday, Mr Mundine said comedians had ‘the freedom to have comedy and make jokes’ and that the Voice referendum, due to be held on October 14, had already bitterly divided the community .

Ms Riley-Mundine, who lives in Canberra with her husband and 10-week-old son, also thought the referendum debate had been divisive and said her “heart went out” to any struggles with mental health issues as a result.

“Many divisive voices have emerged during this referendum and I think as a nation we need to go through a healing process after this,” she said.

“By voting yes, we can show people that this is something out of love and this is something out of hope and it’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The Mundine family has publicly feuded with Warren Mundine’s niece on The Voice Karen Mundine is strongly backing the Yes campaign and claims her late mother Kaye, Mr Mundine’s sister, would too.

Reconciliation of Australia CEO Karen suggested the family could be drifting apart because of their political views.

“Will people be that close? I do not know now. It’s hard to say,” she said.

The most prominent member of the Mundine family, former champion boxer and NRL superstar Anthony, Warren’s great-nephew, is also set to become No.

He described the Voice as “an outright fraud.”

Karen also claimed that her mother Kaye, an indigenous rights campaigner who died in 2016 at the age of 69, would disagree with her brother, with whom she “argued a lot.”

“She would hate this whole debate,” she said.

Karen said her uncle had a direct impact on her childhood and “helped raise” her, and that she loved and respected him.

“He has a position and that’s what he stands for, but I strongly disagree with that position,” she said.

Growing divisions over the campaign have led to abuse directed at Reconciliation Australia, the organization she has led since 2017.

They have been bombarded with abusive phone calls and messages on social media and even received ‘an unsigned threat’.

One of her female colleagues, who knocked on the door for the Yes campaign, also had a hot cup of coffee thrown over her.

Mr Mundine, 67, previously told Daily Mail Australia the vote had not affected the family’s relationships.

“In our family there is a wide range of opinions, just like in any other family,” he told Daily Mail Australia.