Queensland’s top education bureaucrat says Noel Pearson called him an “arse coverer”, “maggot” and “bucket of shit”, as fresh accounts of abusive behaviour by the Indigenous leader have emerged.
And the Queensland education minister, Kate Jones, has backed reports that in 2009 Pearson called her a “fucking white cunt”.
The claims come amid acrimony between Pearson and the state government that led to the exit of his organisation Good to Great Schools Australia (GGSA) from the school at Aurukun on Cape York.
After the ABC reported government scrutiny of alleged unexplained cash flows in relation to the school, Pearson called it “a miserable, racist national broadcaster”.
The ABC has now reported that the state director general for education, Jim Watterston, wrote to Pearson to complain about his alleged attempts to abuse and intimidate departmental staff while they were reviewing GGSA’s role at Aurukun.
“Dear Noel ... when we met on 25 May 2016 I felt there were several times you behaved in an intimidating manner and made inappropriate comments [I clearly recall pejoratives such as ‘arse coverer’, ‘maggot’, and ‘bucket of shit’, to name a few],” Watterston wrote.
“Where I draw the line, however, is when similarly intimidating and abusive behaviour is directed towards my staff.”
Watterston told Pearson in his June letter that the “behaviour displayed towards me and my staff is not conducive to a respectful and cooperative relationship, and cannot continue”.
A spokesman for Jones told the ABC that the minister was confirming for the first time Pearson’s abuse of her, which came when the then environment minister discussed wild rivers protection laws with Pearson.
“The reports are accurate but as I said it was many years ago and I’m not choosing to dwell on them,” Jones later told reporters on Monday.
A nurse in the remote Cape York town of Coen, who campaigned against the local school’s adoption of an expensive and contentious US remedial program called direct instruction under the banner of GGSA, has claimed Pearson also called her a “fucking white cunt”.
Barbara Shephard told the ABC: “He said I was a fucking white cunt and an interfering bitch.
“I personally have no respect for him whatsoever. I feel he is a bully. He’s a foul-mouthed bully.”
Previous reports have maintained that Pearson, the Cape York lawyer whose political advocacy and gift for oratory have seen him feted as one of Australia’s foremost Indigenous leaders, resorted to explicit abuse when angered.
In 2014 Pearson repeatedly called a senior editor at the Sydney Morning Herald a “cunt” and told him he would “beat [him] to a pulp”, the newspaper’s then columnist Paul Sheehan wrote.
And a journalist, Tony Koch, wrote in 2012 of Pearson’s furious abuse after a story on Indigenous slaughter of turtles by the Australian’s Sarah Elks.
“Anyone who knows Pearson will understand what that means: he used language so foul it couldn’t be repeated here, leaving the journalist stunned and shaken, before slamming the phone down in her ear,” Koch wrote.
A spokeswoman for Pearson denied that he had used the “disparaging” terms against both Jones and Shephard.
Pearson said on ABC radio on Monday: “I accept that I am a very passionate and relentless advocate on behalf of reform and I am surely not the only one who engages in colourful language.
“But I completely, completely reject the suggestion that I directed any of those words at minister Kate Jones in 2009.”
Pearson has been contacted for further comment.
Pearson’s GGSA, which has received $37m in taxpayer funds since 2010 to propagate the use of direct instruction in remote Indigenous schools, announced its withdrawal from Aurukun this month after the government attempted to limit the use of the program.
