Opinion: Activist Noel Pearson’s anti-Olympics rant a bit rich

Aboriginal activist Noel Pearson’s efforts in championing reforms in Indigenous education are to be applauded but he can also say some really dumb things, writes Des Houghton.

Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson at Brisbane’s QUT. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Surely it is time to be wary of the divisive words of experienced whinger Noel Pearson, the Aboriginal activist and deal maker.

Pearson’s efforts in championing reforms in Indigenous education are to be applauded.

However, he can also say things that are really dumb. In my opinion.

The Cape York Indigenous leader who lives 2500km away at Noosa was grinding his axe in The Australian again last week.

He ridiculed my beloved Brisbane in an inflammatory opinion piece where he called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to cancel Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic Games contract.

That is ridiculous of course.

He says Brisbane is too small-time to host the Games and that it will cost too much. It’s a bit rich coming from an elder who the federal parliament was told had secured more than $500 million in taxpayer funding for his pet projects.

Pearson is no stranger to controversy. Some years ago he allegedly called Queensland’s

Education Minister Kate Jones a “f---ing white c---”. Pearson said the ABC was racist for running the story.

Noel Pearson argues that Brisbane is not a world city and should not host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Picture: Queensland Government.

Pearson later admitted the “f-word” was used during the fiery meeting in Cairns in 2009 but denied he used the “white c---” term.

“The f-word was used,” he told reporter Sarah Vogler. “The w-, c-words weren’t used.”

In Pearson’s mind our Olympic bid was a folly from the start, and we are “out of our league” by seeking to host them.

Starting today I will be awarding medals to Olympic mischief makers, and Pearson wins a gold for that comment.

I can’t find a town on Earth more suited to hosting the 2032 Games than Brisbane.

If you can find one Noel, please tell me.

“When Brisbane was announced as the winning host in July 2021 it was a case of the dog chasing the car having the misfortune of getting its fangs well stuck into the tyre,” he wrote.

“It’s time for the PM to step in.

“It’s not too late for Brisbane to withdraw from hosting the 2032 Olympics.”

Yes, it is Noel.

Pearson’s tirade continued: “Like all provinces whose erstwhile leaders are always on the hunt for events that will bring international attention and business to their capital Annastacia Palaszczuk went after the biggest prize and grabbed a mouthful of rubber for Queensland.”

He added: “All other cities that ever hosted the Games are of world class. Brisbane is not a world-class city. Australia has two world-class cities: Sydney and Melbourne. Brisbane is in the second tier with Perth and Adelaide.”

Former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and former International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

He then went on to talk about the “enormous outlays involved in the building of sports stadiums and other events infrastructure”.

The cost-benefit numbers are “diabolical” he writes.

“But my argument is not primarily about the cost-benefit of these options that have roiled the Queensland government for four years now.

“My principal point is that Brisbane is not the best choice for Australia to host its third Olympic Games.” I disagree.

The economic benefits to Sydney in hosting the 2000 Olympic Games were extraordinary, with estimates ranging from $6.1 billion to $6.5 billion, enough to pay for Games infrastructure several times over. And that was 25 years ago.

And who could put a price on the sense of national pride that gripped this great nation during and after the Olympics?

Has Noel Pearson forgotten the achievements of Cathy Freeman, the Indigenous superstar who lit up the Games?

And he might have offended Patrick Johnson, Australia’s fastest 100m runner and a Board member for the Brisbane Organising Committee for the 2032 Olympic.

He’s Indigenous and, like Pearson, comes from Cape York.

By talking about extravagant Olympics expenditure Peterson invites us to turn a spotlight on taxpayer-funded ventures that have involved him.

Nearly two years ago Warren Entsch told federal parliament that various government agencies had showered money on Pearson’s Cape York Partnership organisation while funding his Good to Great Schools program.

Queensland athlete Cathy Freeman won gold in the 400m at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Picture: Eric Feferberg/AFP

He said: “Since 2005 Noel has accumulated something like $550 million of Australian taxpayer money – and that is only what I can find – in subsidies for his entities and his policy initiatives. They have received hundreds of millions of dollars over many decades for his pet projects, and for what?

“Many of these remote communities that Noel used as policy experiments remain dysfunctional.”

Entsch wanted answers. He didn’t get any.

Money was pumped into Aurukun, one of the largest communities on the Cape, he said.

Yet unemployment remained high, school attendance remained low, and violent crime rates soared above the national average.

Entsch retired at the last federal election.

He told me he was surprised no one followed up his challenge to look into the funding issue.

Meanwhile, Pearson was not answering his phone this week.

Indigenous leader and Yes campaigner Noel Pearson now lives near Noosa. Picture: Brendan Radke

There was an interesting piece on him published not so long ago in Noosa Today.

The journalist Phil Jarratt described Pearson as a “lawyer, academic, historian, land rights activist, advocate for social reform (and) provocateur”.

And Jarratt added philosopher to his CV.

“Perhaps the one that fits him best now is philosopher, and he can be seen wearing it as he walks or kayaks along the Noosa River, not far from his home outside Tewantin, lost in his many thoughts,” he wrote.

“Pearson keeps a low profile in his adopted community, preferring the anonymity of his family’s neighbourhood bubble after more than 30 years as an often-divisive figure at the forefront of Indigenous reforms. ‘I’m a FIFO fixer these days,’ he chuckles. ‘Fly in, fly out, get home to my bubble’.

Originally published as Opinion: Activist Noel Pearson’s anti-Olympics rant a bit rich