Voice referendum: Noel Pearson a bully and misogynist, says Jacinta Price

Jacinta Price has responded to claims by Noel Pearson she was being manipulated by right-wing think tanks by accusing the Cape York leader of misogyny.

NT senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. Picture: Pin Rada

Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Price – the face of the No campaign against the Indigenous voice to parliament – has hit out at leading Yes campaigner Noel Pearson, labelling him a “misogynist” after he suggested she was being manipulated by conservative think tanks.

In a private speech delivered on Monday evening, Mr Pearson – a co-architect of the voice proposal – took aim at Senator Price and fellow No campaigner Warren Mundine for their roles opposing the voice.

Addressing a crowd of more than 100 partners and clients at Gilbert + Tobin law firm, the Cape York leader argued Senator Price and Mr Mundine did not “have their own mind” and were influenced by conservative think tanks, including the Institute of Public Affairs and the Centre for Independent Studies.

Senator Price was previously the head of the CIS’s Indigenous affairs program, where she looked at education and welfare reform as well as Aboriginal customary law.

Mr Mundine is the director of the CIS Indigenous Forum.

Senator Price rejected the arguments from Mr Pearson and hit back, telling The Weekend Australian: “I think Pearson is a misogynist who’s been allowed to get away with his bullying and his misogyny.”

She said the referendum campaign had shown that “powerful Aboriginal men are untouchable” and were “not held to the same standards as what the left would hold – what they regard as the patriarchy, the white colonial patriarchy to that standard”.

“They don’t hold men like Noel Pearson to that standard. And so Pearson gets away with such disrespectful behaviour.”

Senator Price said Aboriginal women had “never had our feminist movement”.

“We are up against powerful men who are never held to ­account. And basically when the left-wing media ignore this ­misogyny, Aboriginal women are effectively being told … you’re not important.

“There is no, you know, ­equivalent to an Aboriginal Grace Tame.”

Mr Pearson – whose comments were reported in Nine newspapers – suggested that both Senator Price and Mr Mundine were being used as “front people” but the real power behind the No campaign lay with right-wing think tanks.

“I don’t blame Jacinta and Warren,” he said.

“Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they do … All of the strings are so visible.”

Mr Pearson was contacted for comment by The Weekend Australian for a response to Senator Price’s criticism.

However, one day before the referendum, Mr Pearson was telling Adelaide radio he believed the Yes case was “in with a good chance”.

“I’m sensing a mood all over the country that more and more people are coming out in favour of Yes,” Mr Pearson said on ­Friday.

“The vast, very large undecided vote is there to be taken in the next 24 hours. That’s when people are focusing.

“My message to them is: here’s your chance to make history for Australia particularly, South Australia. South Australia’s always done it in the past – women’s suffrage, land rights. It’s been a progressive tradition.

“Let’s put the politics of the present aside for 24 hours and think about the long-term future.”