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- Anthony Mundine recently stood for Advance Australia Fair
- Indigenous sporting icon says he won’t be doing that again
- Mundine doesn’t like the song and says he wants to educate people
Indigenous footy and boxing great Anthony Mundine recently stood for the national anthem at a boxing charity event – but now says he regrets doing so.
Mundine, 49, who has been critical of Advance Australia Fair in the past, was attending a boxing event in Pyrmont last week and decided to stand up with the rest of the room when the national anthem played.
The sporting icon, who had trained some of the boxers at the black-tie event, says he now regrets the decision.
‘I thought straight away I shouldn’t have got up,’ he told News Corp.
‘It was more out of respect for Mario (Tartak), who organised the night and the event.
‘I didn’t want to disrespect the organisers at a charity show, but I was still dirty on myself because I’m a leader on this.’
Mundine says he won’t be making this mistake again.
‘My stance has not changed, and I’ll continue to stand by my beliefs. It was an uncomfortable slip-up, and I should have stood my ground.
Anthony Mundine (pictured) recently stood for the Australian national anthem at a charity event, but says he regrets doing so
The former boxing champion believes that the anthem disconnects Australians
‘I’ve done a lot of research – it’s racist, and I want to keep educating people.
‘I’ve been strong on this since day one.
‘I stand for the truth. I want harmony with the people, but the anthem disconnects us.’
In 2021, Mundine slammed Scott Morrison’s ‘tokenistic’ change to the national anthem, claiming Advance Australia Fair is still a ‘white supremacy song’.
The Government at the time changed the anthem’s second line from ‘young and free’ to ‘one and free’, but Mundine said it needed a wholesale rewrite.
Mundine has been vocal with his criticism of the national anthem over the years
‘For me, it’s tokenistic man,’ Mundine told Daily Mail Australia at the time. He bluntly said ‘hell no’ when asked if the word change was enough.
‘One word ain’t gonna change the core meaning of a song! It’s always gonna be a white supremacy song until the whole song is rewritten! Still ain’t good enough!’
