‘Bedwetter’: Noel Pearson rubbishes Mick Gooda’s voice suggestion

Cape York Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has launched a personal attack on long-time former public servant Mick Gooda’s record and batted away claims support for the voice is falling.

Noel Pearson, right, has rubbished renewed calls to remove from the voice to parliament proposal the power to advise executive government, after long-time public servant Mick Gooda, left, expressed concerns the voice proposal would fail. Pictures: Evan Morgan/Martin Ollman

Cape York Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has rubbished renewed calls to remove from the voice to parliament proposal the power to advise executive government.

It comes after long-time public servant and former human rights commissioner Mick Gooda – a Gangulu person – on Thursday expressed concerns the voice proposal would fail and suggested removing the executive government from the proposal.

“Mick Gooda’s wrong,” Mr Pearson told ABC’s RN on Friday morning. “He’s never been involved in the process that led to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. He had no involvement. He was running the Don Dale Inquiry in the Northern Territory that so far, as I can gather today, has produced nothing.”

Mr Pearson said Mr Gooda’s intervention yesterday was akin to “wetting the bed”.

“He was opposed to the voice. He only wanted symbolic recognition. So he has form in relation to the position that he’s taken. But, you know, this early bed-wetting just when we’re yet to start the campaign proper is not right. He does not represent Indigenous people in the position he’s taken.”

Mr Pearson also denied that support for the voice to parliament was falling.

“There’s no trend,” he said. “There’s one outlier poll and we’ll have to see how we go. As I said, we’ve been through a lot of strife. The media has been probably nine-to-one against us in this, in these recent months.”

Nonetheless, he said the campaign was under “heavy weather”.

“We’re not yet on the journey. The campaign proper is yet to start. When this legislation passes the parliament, we’ll be ready to start the long paddle upriver.”

He also said former opposition Indigenous affairs spokesperson Julian Leeser was “damaging the cause of recognition”.

“Julian, as a friend of recognition, he said he‘d vote for recognition in any case,” Mr Pearson said. “He thinks that he’s doing a helpful thing in terms of proposing a last-minute change, knowing that the time has been called on those changes now. And I think that Julian’s agenda here is actually damaging to the cause of recognition.”

Mr Leeser left the Opposition frontbench last month over its position on the voice to parliament, but pushed for a model that would remove the executive government from the proposal.