The Liberals for Yes have demanded that Warren Mundine explain the full details of “secret sackings”, after the Recognise a Better Way spokesman claimed he had ejected two volunteers for making racist remarks.
On Tuesday Mundine separately denounced as “bizarre” comments by the Australian Jewish Association head, David Adler, who is on the advisory board of reactionary campaign group Advance, questioning Stan Grant’s skin tone. Adler has reportedly said he did not intend to insult the presenter, adding “I am 100% zero racism”.
Mundine also claimed in an interview with Radio National that he had ejected two volunteers from his campaign, including one for making antisemitic remarks, which the Liberals for Yes campaign said “raises many serious questions”.
Mundine refused to name which two volunteers he had ejected but said they were not prominent and that those with racist views were a “tiny minority” in the debate.
“I don’t accept any racial comments from anyone in regards to these issues,” he told Radio National.
“One was a very antisemitic comment and I’m not going to wear that crap.”
Liberals for Yes said the “no campaign must immediately release the full details of the secret sackings of these campaign workers and explain in detail the reason for their unprecedented action”.
“This referendum debate is too important, and the eradication of racism too essential, for political cover-ups and secret sackings to be allowed to remain in the cover of darkness,” Liberals for Yes said in a statement.
The Liberals for Yes said that “covering up this racism scandal” fails the “important nation-building test” of conducting the referendum campaign with “dignity and respect”.
In the days after Grant stepped down as Q&A host over racist abuse, Adler reportedly posted pictures of the Wiradjuri man on social media with commentary about the colour of his skin.
In March, Adler posted the same image with similar remarks.
Mundine told Radio National: “I find those comments bizarre.
“Stan Grant and I went to university together, we’ve been mates for over 30 years, brothers in fact we consider ourselves. There is no question about where he comes from and no question about his Aboriginality at all.”
Mundine said that social media posts discussing Grant’s skin tone were “absolute nonsense”.
Mundine said that Adler was “on the fringe” of the no campaign and wasn’t “involved” with Recognise a Better Way. He said Adler’s involvement with Advance was a matter for them.
“I’ve made it quite clear – I’ve actually kicked several people off our campaign in regard to their comments, and I intend to keep doing that.”
Adler has also raised questions about former Greens senator Lidia Thorpe’s background, including posting on social media in March 2022 comments about how Aboriginal she is.
Mundine said he had not seen those comments but it was “quite disgusting” and a “total nonsense” to discuss what “percentage” Indigenous a person is. “It’s disgraceful and it’s a very racist attack.”
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said that Adler’s comments were “disgraceful”, telling ABC Radio he “doesn’t represent anybody”.
“He’s entirely self-appointed … The No campaign needs to stop using disinformation and dissociate itself from the kind of hateful, revolting material that we’ve seen from people like Mr David Adler.”
Adler has stood by his comments in a social media post thanking New South Wales Liberal Democrat John Ruddick and “many supporters” for backing him.
“Both these people [Grant and Thorpe] have put race as central to their political statements,” Adler wrote. “So raising questions, even uncomfortable non [politically correct] questions, is legitimate, not racist.”
Mundine also responded to a report that in 2017 he had argued that Indigenous people “need to have a voice” backed by the “force of ... constitutional law”, which could not be removed by the government of the day.
“We need to have a voice. We need to be heard. We need to be seen. But we also need guarantees that we just don’t have bodies set up, and then they’re destroyed by governments at governments’ will,” Mundine had said.
On Tuesday Mundine claimed that in context he was “actually talking about something which I’ve always supported, which was treaties”.
“When I talk about treaties, when I talk about constitutional recognition, it is in regard to treaties that are signed between the commonwealth government and First Nations peoples,” Mundine said.
Asked about his early involvement with Uphold and Recognise, which proposed an Indigenous Voice, Mundine said: “I was involved in the beginning … and then after it got further down the track in regard to [what] it was looking at, [then I said] I don’t support that.
“It has to be the First Nations, it has to be the traditional owners who make those agreements. I can’t speak for other people’s country, and they can’t speak for my country.”
Guardian Australia contacted Advance for comment.
