Race Relations, Noel Pearson

On Nov 5, 2014, Australians witnessed arguably the only great piece of oratory delivered 'down under' for a generation: Noel Pearson's eulogy for former Labour Prime MInister, Gough Whitlam.  This paper, written for a wider audience (and now lengthened to consider dispositio, Feb 2019), uses some rhetorical tools borrowed from the Romans "Gough" admired (as Pearson notes) in order to analyse the delivery, ethos, pathos, argument and style of this extraordinary speech.

Aboriginal Australian public intellectual Noel Pearson has gained prominence and influence for his brand of policy reform in Indigenous affairs by drawing upon the capabilities approach. This article challenges the coherence of Pearson’s position, arguing that his unrelenting focus on personal responsibility leads him to conflate different elements within capabilities thinking. Pearson 1) mistakes social capabilities (to which people are entitled) for human potential to be unfolded and 2) casts and prescribes personal responsibility as a type of latent capability. The latter a) inverts the capabilities approach wherein phenomena such as personal responsibility arise as an effect of the realization of latent capabilities rather than serving as latent capabilities themselves and b) is at odds with the liberal basis of the capabilities approach that rejects imposing “good” ways of life on people. This is illustrated through reference to Pearson’s advocacy of Direct Instruction teaching and engagement with the “real economy”. The paper recognizes Pearson’s contribution to the policy debate and that the problems he highlights are real, but argues that the remedial approaches adopted are problematic, including in terms of Pearson’s stated stance against assimilationist policy agendas.

Since white settlement of Australia in 1788, the Aboriginal community has remained a conspicuously disadvantaged minority group. Decades of Federal and State government welfare policies have not prevented alcoholism, domestic violence and unemployment from undermining life in Aboriginal communities. Radically different policies are now being trialled, in recognition that a social emergency exists and in recognition that 'money for nothing' welfare handouts have not succeeded in developing human capabilities in Aboriginal communities. Despite the 2008 'sorry day' apology, emotional hurts still run deep, and perceived injustices continue to impact upon the recognition of Aboriginal rights and the advancement of Aboriginal capabilities.