Indigenous leader Warren Mundine says the conversation around indigenous affairs needs to change.

Bill Shorten’s suggestion that “paternalistic know-it-all-whitefellas” are too keen to remove at-risk indigenous kids from their homes has got the Aboriginal advocate riled up.

“The only paternalistic whitefella is him,” he says.

“What gets me angry is we’re talking about kids. We had those two and four-year-old kids allegedly raped. That is just unimaginable. For him to say the problem is whitefellas, he has got no clue.”

“He needs to get educated in this space, because we are dealing with some really dreadful situations.”

Mundine will be joining a NSW government advisory body tasked with overcoming indigenous disadvantage. He hopes to direct conversation away from virtue signalling debates around Australia Day and get back to what actually advances Aboriginal welfare.

“People can go on about Australia Day, but that is not going to get people out of poverty. That is not going to get people in the economy,” he says.

“We’ve got to stop talking crap. We’ve chucked the money out willy-nilly, this is what we’ve been doing for decades.”

“But it’s not about how much you’re spending, it’s about what your outcome is. If you’re going to spend a dollar, I want to know what the outcome of that dollar is going to do.”

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