Noel Pearson says 1788 is 'one of three' defining moments for Australia

Noel Pearson says 1788 is ‘one of three’ defining moments for Australia

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.

Mr Abbott took the indigenous portfolio into his own department after winning the 2013 election and delivered on a pledge to spend a week each year governing from a remote community.

However, his term was cut short in September 2015 when Malcolm Turnbull ousted him.

Mr Pearson told the National Press Club on Wednesday Mr Abbott had been his “closest friend” in political circles and one of the few people on his mobile phone speed dial.

“It was cut short,” Mr Pearson said of his friend’s tenure.

“I think there’s been few people more genuinely signed up to our cause than him. I regret his passing.”

Mr Pearson said Mr Abbott had struggled over two years to come to terms with the size of the challenge in improving living standards for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

But the former prime minister got the ball rolling on recognising indigenous people in the constitution.

“It was essential that a conservative start the kick-off … Nixon had to go to China and a conservative had to kick this ball along the road.”

It was now important that Mr Turnbull used his experience to facilitate the referendum.

Mr Pearson said he was disappointed the Abbott government had “inadequately” responded to a reform proposal put to it a year ago.

Mr Abbott has declared he will recontest his Sydney seat of Warringah at the next election.

Mr Pearson said he believed Mr Turnbull had received advice on how he might continue the “tradition” of working out of a remote indigenous community once a year.

1788 โ€˜one of three defining momentsโ€™ of Australian history

In his address, Mr Pearson also raised the controversial statement made in 2014 by then prime minister Tony Abbott that the arrival of the Firstย Fleet on 26 January 1788 was Australia’s most defining moment.

Mr Pearson said Mr Abbott failed to mention two more.

These, he said, were whenย more thanย 50,000 years ago, theย first Australians crossed theย Torres Strait land bridge toย this continent, and the abolition ofย the white Australia policyย between 1973 and 1975.

โ€œIt isย these dates that speak to theย three parts of Australia, ourย Indigenous heritage, the factย of our British colonisation andย the removal of discrimination against migrants,โ€ Mr Pearson said.

He adds Australia Day, January 26,ย would not be fuelled with so muchย โ€œoffense and hurtโ€ if the day โ€œspoke to these three partsโ€.

โ€œIt can’t just beย about what was destroyed. Itย must also be about what we haveย built. The meaning we invest inย Australia can’t just be aboutย what was destroyed, but whatย was created.โ€

โ€˜Wrong turnโ€™ veeringย off political path

โ€œIt’s my greatestย regret,โ€ he said when asked aboutย theย decision to declineย a career inย politics. โ€œFifteen years ago I beganย our reform journey in Capeย York, 15 years ago, I was 35ย years old. And I made the wrongย turn.

โ€œI made the wrong turnย because I think I’ve hit theย limit of how much influence youย can have barking from theย outside.โ€

Mrย Pearsonย instead chose to lead Cape York Partnerships – the NGO which is advising government about the best measures to improve outcomes for Indigenous people.

It hasย proposed the government adoptย an โ€˜Indigenous Empowermentโ€™ policy, which aims to give Indigenous communities increased voice in decision making around Indigenous affairs through partnerships between communities and governments at local, regional, state and national levels.

โ€œWe’ve reached the kind of dead end of Indigenous affairs presided over by a Minister and a department,โ€ Mr Pearson said.

โ€œI’m not saying that the people involved are insincere. It is just that the system by which they attempt to deal with our communities is not one that works.

โ€œIt can’t discern excrement from clay. It just cannot.โ€

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