World boxing champion Anthony Mundine took the gloves off on Monday, taking a swipe at the federal government's failure to weigh into rugby league's racial row.

A former NSW Origin player, Mundine came out swinging again when asked if he thought enough had been done to punish Andrew Johns for his racial slurs which led to disgusted NSW player Timana Tahu walking out on the Blues camp earlier this month.

"The Prime Minister should be talking about this issue, not me," said Mundine when asked his personal opinion of how the Tahu racial affair had been handled.

While Johns has since publicly apologised to Tahu and others for his offensive remarks aimed at superstar Greg Inglis and some of his Queensland Origin team mates, Mundine felt more should have been done to highlight the wrong.

"It's something the ARL, or whoever is in charge to look at ... but action definitely has to be taken," added Mundine, not convinced the issue had been properly handled.

"We can't tolerate racism in sport or in society.

"There's racism there but like drugs you've just got to do the best you can to limit it."

Pushed on whether Johns had been sufficiently dealt with, Mundine said he should pay for his ignorance.

"There should be action take against Andrew," he said as he prepared for Wednesday night's junior middleweight fight against Argentina's Carlos Jerez in Brisbane.

"I played with him (Johns) and against him ... he don't seem like a bad dude," added Mundine who played three Origins in 1999 alongside Johns.

"But that mentality, that thought that he can say those types of things is wrong.

"We need to start educating the kids and the players in the sport to overcome this issue."

Mundine warned of the dangers of sweeping the incident under the carpet.

"If they tolerate it and if they pass this one under the bridge, it's going to be like `what next'," he said.

"It shows that not just that (rugby league) system, but the whole of the Australian government is racist because of the fact that action has not been taken.

"It has to be done."

Mundine, who played for St George and Brisbane in the NRL before taking a massive risk switching to professional boxing 10 years ago, also slammed NSW selectors for lacking the courage to pick an Origin side that could attack Queensland.

"Man, they should pick Nathan Merritt and Preston Campbell and Michael Jennings," he said as the Blues faced their first series whitewash since 1995.

"I'll tell you the problem with Nathan Merritt, he scores too many tries.

"Those guys are game breakers who can match Queensland, then it's anybody's game.

"They can match them with firepower. You fight fire with fire.

"They've lost for five years running and they've still got same selectors, the same mindset.

"Everything needs to change or they'll lose another five series in a row."

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