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Noel Pearson's Role in the Northern Territory Intervention: Radical Centrist or Polarising Partisan?
Author(s) -
Curchin Katherine
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/ajph.12120
Subject(s) - indigenous , negotiation , intervention (counseling) , government (linguistics) , active listening , politics , pearson product moment correlation coefficient , sociology , political science , public administration , social science , law , psychology , philosophy , ecology , linguistics , statistics , mathematics , communication , psychiatry , biology
Noel Pearson is one of Australia's most prominent and influential Aboriginal intellectuals. This article examines a major idea in his writing: the “quest for a radical centre”. Through the concept of the radical centre, Pearson articulates both his desire to transcend existing policy paradigms and an ethics of partisanship which emphasizes the importance of listening to and negotiating with one's political adversaries. Pearson's development of this concept is explored in light of the role Pearson has played as leading advocate for Indigenous welfare reform, and especially his pivotal contribution to the public debate over the introduction of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Intervention by the Howard government in 2007.