MEDIA

It was late in the 1990s that I first learned about the kindness and generosity that could come unexpectedly from the Right.

Prominent Cape York Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has hit out against the tightening of Queensland’s tree clearing laws, arguing the changes could hurt Indigenous people trying to break out of poverty.

Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson has urged indigenous communities to take greater care of their children, warning that the quest for self-determination is being undermined by continued neglect and abuse.

In December last year, Northern Territory MP Bess Price was chided by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly for an interjection in her mother tongue, Warlpiri, one of the great ancient languages of that territory. The Speaker, Country Liberal Party MP Kezia Purick, stated “the language of the assembly is English”.

Like many, I welcomed the Prime Minister’s Closing the Gap speech. Hearing one of our ancient languages being spoken for the first time in Parliament was an important moment. I was also heartened to hear the Prime Minister declare that it is time “do things with us, not to us”.

Before the 2013 election, both the Gillard Labor government and the Tony Abbott-led opposition committed to supporting the development of a new reform agenda for indigenous affairs, to be trialled in eight regions across the country, called Empowered Communities.

To paraphrase the Great One, “every galah in every pet shop is talking innovation”.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson has used his National Press Club address to lament the fact Tony Abbott’s prime ministership was cut short and to talk about the defining moments in Australia’s history.

A speech by the veteran journalist and Wiradjuri man Stan Grant to the Ethics Centre in Sydney was a “tour de force” and the “companion to PM Paul Keating’s speech at Redfern Park in 1992”, Noel Pearson has told the National Press Club.

Indigenous leader Noel Pearson begins his address at the National Press Club in his traditional language. It is partially translated by 12-year-old Kian Woibo, a Guugu Yimidhirr speaker. Pearson wants more Indigenous youth to learn the language.

Australia’s most prominent Indigenous leader and activist, Noel Pearson, has said not entering politics is his greatest regret and called for a new centrist political force to fix a political system failing Indigenous affairs, which is in “deep crisis”.

Australia Day: celebrate our Indigenous heritage, our British inheritance and our multicultural achievement.