Noel Pearson reveals he prays Australians ‘will support the Indigenous voice to parliament by a majority of voters in a majority of the states’

Noel Pearson appears before the Voice referendum inquiry in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Rugby Australia’s statement on the Indigenous voice to parliament this week is the one I’ve been waiting for. This is the game of Mark, Glen and Gary, the heroes of my youth. And that tower of steel, the magnificent fourth brother: Lloyd Walker.

Mark Ella’s book Running Rugby is the leadership bible of my public life. More than the playbook for the most exciting rugby there is, it is first and foremost a metaphor for how to play life.

I have prayed desperately for more than two decades for two things. The first for Eddie Jones to be returned to his rightful place as coach of the Wallabies. Having been exiled from his homeland to the great cost of our country and code, the master coach is back and I for one could not be more excited. If Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan’s genius footwork off-field is matched on-field, we are going to give this year’s World Cup a shake.

The second prayer was that one day we would have a referendum to amend the Australian Constitution to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the First Peoples of Australia. The first meeting I had on the subject was hosted by CEO John Hartigan in the boardroom at News Corporation headquarters at Holt Street in Sydney’s Surry Hills. Hartigan had been a long-time supporter of reconciliation.

When Chris Mitchell led this masthead he convened a balanced debate on constitutional recognition within a broader and consistent coverage of Indigenous affairs. It was for two decades often the only media outlet publishing stories and engaging in the vexed issues confronting the country concerning its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Chris Kenny and then legal affairs writer Chris Merritt were early supporters. Greg Sheridan and Paul Kelly were early opponents. Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven first denounced the expert panel’s proposal for a non-discrimination clause in the Constitution as a “one-line bill of rights”.

He subsequently joined with me, Marcia Langton and Julian Leeser in proposing to then prime minister Tony Abbott an alternative proposal for a body to advise parliament on the views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. This was to be constitutionally recognised while giving parliament the power to determine its functions and representation. Professor Anne Twomey provided the drafting of a potential clause.

For a long time this paper was the only media outlet engaged in this discussion.

The Weekend Australian Magazine featuring Noel Pearson. Picture: Nic Walker

Merritt has since changed sides and is a shrill opponent whose lurid denunciations of the voice proposal stand directly at odds with his previous support. He is the putative head of a certain Rule of Law Institute. I would have thought fundamental to the rule of law is its consistency, rather than its malleability according to one’s changing circumstances and loyalties.

It’s fair to say that since former Institute of Public Affairs chairwoman Janet Albrechtsen started her crusade against the voice, the opinions in this broadsheet are more numerously antipathetic to the voice than not. Albrechtsen regurgitates her arguments repetitively and they are the same lines she ran when she was an IPA official. The IPA is behind the No campaign.

Indigenous leaders Warren Mundine and now opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Price are just a front for the Centre for Independent Studies and the IPA think tanks. They are just glove puppets. The voice is Indigenous but the words are scripted by the clever children of the IPA. The fists inside the puppets punching down on Indigenous people are white.

This is not fiction or a slur. It is the truth.

Price was gearing up for this campaign for several years as a fellow of the CIS, well before she entered parliament. Albrechtsen even touted her as a future PM.

The IPA has never been a worthwhile organisation but it is a pity about the CIS. Under former director Greg Lindsay it was an important intellectual voice for liberalism whose policy production was worth considering and often on point. Under Helen Hughes its research and commentaries on Indigenous policy were important contributions to the national debate.

Even today its education program led by Glenn Fahey is head and shoulders above anything else produced by universities and other think tanks. That the CIS, under director Tom Switzer, would depart from its usual practice of abjuring politically motivated ideological extremism like the IPA is as unexpected as it is disappointing.

The boomer readership of this paper is of course antipathetic to recognition. They are mostly obscurant and borderline casual racists in their views. Just read the comments at the bottom of this piece. If the referendum relied on these readers then we would have no chance.

But Australia is moving on. The change that is needed to secure recognition of Australia’s First Peoples is happening beyond that group of boomers who want this to be about the culture wars. The problem is that too many party activists and parliamentary candidates and members of the Liberal and National parties want to recreate America in Australia.

The extreme polarisation of politics in the US is sought to be imported to this country. There are Australians who would like Trump and MAGA-style politics to become the politics of Australia.

This referendum will test us. It will test whether the paranoid style of American politics will become the politics of our country.

On Thursday the board of Rugby Australia issued its statement in support of recognition: “The Voice is not about Division. It’s about Union.”

In doing so it joined the National Rugby League and Australian Football League in supporting the referendum and urging their members and supporters to think seriously about their vote. RA’s statement is a most worthy response to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. It’s no mere press release. It too speaks from the heart. Even sceptics should take the time to read and consider it.

The Yes and No cases will be published for all voters in due course. Those preparing the Yes case will find inspiration in RA’s statement this week.

Former prime ministers John Howard and Abbott urged the sporting codes to stay out of the referendum debate. Especially Rugby Union. To its credit, RA has resisted their intimidation.

Whatever respect we have for Howard’s successful prime ministership and whatever ongoing dismay we have for Abbott’s failed prime ministership, they are both wrong in their attempt to silence the sporting codes. RA, the NRL and the AFL are showing moral courage where Abbott is showing why it was a good thing that Malcolm Turnbull terminated his prime ministership and the people of Warringah rejected his parliamentary representation.

The decision of the football codes in support of recognition and reconciliation against the political objections of the Liberal and National parties shows the gulf between politicians and people. You can exclaim all you like about wokeness. This is where people show the leadership that politicians won’t.

My two prayers were answered. The coach is back. The referendum is on. Now I have a third prayer. The long campaign has not started yet. It will start in earnest when the referendum bill passes the parliament.

Even though I’m a rusted-on Randwick voter I believe the people of Warringah will support the referendum. I believe that the people of Australia will support the Indigenous voice to parliament by a majority of voters in a majority of the states.

Noel Pearson is a director of Cape York Partnership and Good to Great Schools Australia.

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Note from the Editor-in-Chief

Our masthead has had a long association with Noel Pearson. We have published his words over many decades. And we recognise his position as an architect of the voice. However, we disagree with a great deal of what he has written today.

The Australian has been diligent in covering all sides of the referendum debate. We do this because the contest of ideas is central to our values and because Indigenous affairs are a touchstone for us as the national broadsheet.

As Chris Kenny writes in Inquirer today, “voters confront a historically heavy responsibility” in the coming referendum. Part of that responsibility is to engage with the issues in a considered, thoughtful way.

The Australian stands by the professionalism and integrity of our writers. We reject Mr Pearson’s characterisation of our readers as “borderline casual racists”.

And we call on all participants to be civil and to respect differences of opinion.

Michelle Gunn, Editor-in-Chief