There can be no doubt that Noel Pearson is not only a national leader in policy development, he is also a controversial figure who manages to split the interested public, academia, journalists and politicians into candid supporters or staunch critics. To research such a polarising personality's work and personal background is particularly challenging.

On the first glance Noel Pearson seems to have very a clear vision, aims and his one big project - the welfare reform project in the Cape York Peninsula. But Pearson's range of addressed topics, his 'ideology' and especially his relationship to the major political parties in Australia are a lot more complex than superficially apparent. I argue that Noel Pearson has not completely given up on the Indigenous rights agenda and that 'his language of rights' is merely differently prioritised and defined than in conventional discourse of the political left or right factions. I also want to argue that his success with both the previous and current government, among other reasons, lies less with his positioning in the 'radical centre' than with political pragmatism or even opportunism on both sides - Pearson's as well as the government's. As part of my PhD thesis on the 'Language of Rights', this paper investigates these issues on the basis of some of Pearson's publications, speeches, reports and media appearances from 1993 till 2007 and presents work in progress.