Warren Mundine accuses Anthony Albanese of dividing nation on race over the Voice

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has accused Anthony Albanese of dividing the nation on race with the Voice referendum.

Indigenous leader Warren Mundine has accused Anthony Albanese of dividing the nation on race with the Voice referendum swearing “on my mother and father‘s grave that I will fight this.”

Mr Mundine, a leading advocate for the ‘No’ vote campaign, blasted the Prime Minister at a press conference today, suggesting he was wasting millions of dollars on the vote which would be better spent in local communities.

In an emotional speech, he suggested the divisive debate was exposing people to bigotry.

“And we will not allow the Prime Minister and this referendum to divide our country along the lines of race within our Constitution,‘’ he said.

“This thing is about division and dividing this country and the racial abuse that we‘ve been hearing over the last few months.”

Mr Mundine said the debate was impacting his mental health.

“You know, everyone knows the pressure that was put on me to send me almost to suicidal positions and this is what this is what this prime minister has done,‘’ he said.

“This Prime Minister from day one had attacked people who had a different opinion to him, calling them names.

“And that opened up the floor for the whole division to stop with all the horrible racial abuse with all the horrible bigotry that‘s been going on out there.

“He’s the one who started this, he’s the one who brought it out. And as he thinks that the voice is the answer.”

Mr Mundine, a leading advocate for the ‘No’ vote campaign, blasted the Prime Minister on Wednesday.

He has sworn ‘on my mother and father‘s grave that I will fight this’. Picture: Sky News

Last month, Mr Mundine revealed his personal battles which led to thoughts of suicide as a result of the abuse he has received for his stance on the Voice referendum.

Speaking on Sky News, Mr Mundine revealed he had twice considered suicide.

“I planned it, I planned it twice to do it,” he said.

“And I just laid in the rain thinking about it and I thought about my family, and thought this would really affect my family if I did this. So, I laid there for a few hours before I calmed down again. But it‘s a constant, it’s a constant thing that I have.”

Mr Mundine claimed the abuse that concerned him most was from leading Yes campaigners.

“You looked at Noel Pearson‘s comments and he made a dreadful racist comment against me,” he said. he said.

“And then you‘ve got him you’ve got Marcia Langton who I’ve known for thirty years, you’ve got a whole wide range of people like that. So, these people are essential to this election, it’s not like they’re the fringe and so that really hurt me.”

Speaking on ABC TV after the comments, the ABC‘s The Voice/Referendum Correspondent Dan Bouchier suggested he had himself had been on the receiving end of some of Mr Mundine’s sprays.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks at the Yes campaign launch on August 30, 2023 in Adelaide, Australia. Picture: James Elsby/Getty Images

“He accused me of being a Yes campaigner because of my body language which he retracted on social media,‘’ Bouchier said.

“Clearly, he said he is angry. He touched on his own mental health and that has been really well documented and talked about across the media after he did an interview on Sky News where the journalist pushed him, it wasn‘t as though he wanted to speak about it.”

Earlier, Mr Mundine said money was being wasted on the referendum.

“We‘re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars which could be better spent in those communities and him flying around the country with these happy clapping crowds,’’ he said.

“I‘m very angry about this because I and my family grew up under the segregation laws in the 1950s and 60s.

“I will swear on my mother and father‘s grave that I will fight this. And I’ll be out there every day championing the wonderful country that we got, which is not a racist group of people. We’re not a racist country with all these elite corporate people and football codes and everyone site we are, and we’ve got a wonderful, gorgeous country.”