Australian political party. During his tenure, Mundine pushed for the selection of candidates of Aboriginal background. Mundine served just one term as national president, stepping down in 2007. In March 2012, he expressed an interest in becoming Labor's first federal Aboriginal member of federal parliament, following the resignation of Mark Arbib from the Senate. After the selection of former Premier of New South Wales Bob Carr to replace Arbib, Mundine left the Labor Party. In an interview with The Australian, Mundine explained that he had been a supporter of "Hawke-Keating Labor, which was about economic development and progress, and working with unions to get good outcomes for everyone", but that, by 2012, the ALP was "no longer the party I joined" and had failed to keep up with the conservative parties in selecting indigenous candidates. Liberal Party career Following the election of the Tony Abbott-led Liberal-National coalition in 2013, Abbott appointed Mundine as chairman of the Australian government's Indigenous Advisory Council. In January 2017, Mundine lost his position when the council was dissolved by the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull. On 22 January 2019, at the behest of the prime minister, Scott Morrison, the New South Wales state executive of the Liberal Party installed Mundine as candidate for the seat of Gilmore in the 2019 federal election, although he had only joined the party that week. The state executive waived the usual waiting period for new party members, and withdrew the endorsement of Grant Schultz, who had been preselected as the party's candidate eight months previously. Mundine failed to be elected, and Gilmore was the only seat won by the Labor Party at the election. Supporter of nuclear power In the late 2000s, Mundine emerged as a public supporter of nuclear industrial development in Australia, arguing that, in response to climate change, nuclear power should not be ruled out of Australia's future energy mix. His former directorship of the Australian Uranium Association attracted criticism from anti-nuclear lobbies. Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011, The Sydney Morning Herald named Mundine as a supporter of nuclear power. Mundine wrote in an opinion piece published in The Australian Financial Review in 2012:"By looking after the full life cycle of the uranium, with the support of the traditional owners of the lands on which it is mined and stored, not only will we play a responsible role within the global community, but we