Boxing and footy great Anthony Mundine says he regrets standing for the Australian national anthem

Indigenous football and boxing great Anthony Mundine recently stood for the national anthem at a boxing charity event, but now says he regrets it.

Mundine, 49, who has been critical of Advance Australia Fair in the past, was at a boxing event in Pyrmont last week and decided to stand up along with the rest of the crowd when the national anthem played.

The sporting icon, who had trained a number of boxers at the black-tie event, says he now regrets his decision.

“I immediately thought I shouldn’t have gotten up,” he said News Corp.

‘It was more out of respect for Mario (Tartak), who organised the evening and the event.

“I didn’t want to offend the organizers of a charity event, but I was still nasty to myself because I’m a leader in this.”

Mundine says he won’t make that mistake again.

‘My position has not changed and I stand by my beliefs. It was an awkward misstep and I should have defended my position.

The former boxing champion believes the anthem breaks ties between Australians

‘I’ve done a lot of research: it’s racist and I want to continue to educate people.

‘I’ve been strong at this from day one.

‘I stand for the truth. I want harmony with the people, but the national anthem breaks the connection.’

In 2021, Mundine criticised Scott Morrison’s “tokenistic” change to the national anthem, claiming Advance Australia Fair is still a “white supremacist anthem”.

The government at the time changed the second line of the anthem from “young and free” to “one and free”, but Mundine said the whole thing had to be rewritten.

Mundine has been vocal about his criticism of the national anthem over the years

“For me he is a symbolic man,” Mundine told Daily Mail Australia at the time. He flatly said “no” when asked if the word change was enough.

‘One word won’t change the core meaning of a song! It will always be a white supremacist song until the entire song is rewritten! It’s still not good enough!’