Pearson’s Peerage

Noel Pearson has proposed that the Australian people vote to include an “indigenous representative body” in the Australian Constitution. No doubt Pearson would see himself as one of the chosen few to be elevated to such a body. Lord Pearson of Hope Vale has a certain ring to it. Before Tony Blair filled it with multiculturalist spin-doctors, the House of Lords once consisted of judges, scientists, artists, bishops and other distinguished persons. Australia’s House of Lords would consist of one group: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

There are sixteen members of Australian parliaments who claim Aboriginal heritage. At the very least Pearson’s proposal is a little late. If he feels voiceless—a strange thing for an orator—he could do as these sixteen have done and seek endorsement from a political party, or run for office as an independent senator for Queensland. As it happens, the sixteen MPs represent different parties, so imagine Pearson’s peers in heated…