'top gun'. In 2014, Sarra presented the Griffith Review annual lecture, where he called for the rejection of the victim status often being applied to being Aboriginal and argued for a new style of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal leadership to achieve honourable and sustainable outcomes. He said this relationship needs to be based on respect and high expectations rather than victimhood or victim blaming. Sarra has questioned the government's roll out of Direct Instruction (DI) in remote Aboriginal schools. In 2012 he said, "It is time for Aboriginal people and poor white Queenslanders to say we want high expectations and we want excellence from our schools because that is what is transformative, that is what enables us to transcend the challenges we confront day to day." In 2015, Sarra expressed concerns about the Cape York trial of DI, saying that other remote schools were getting better results in NAPLAN. He suggested the plans to roll out DI across remote communities in Northern Australia could be a long-lasting and expensive mistake. Tenure at the Australian Rugby League Commission Sarra was appointed to the newly independent Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) in February 2012. In February 2013 Percy Knight, the Chairperson of the ARL Indigenous Council was sacked. Percy Knight had only become Chairperson of the ARL Indigenous Council in August 2012. Chris Sarra was involved in events leading to the sacking. Percy Knight said of the sacking: "There is rampant racism within the NRL's administration and it is very toxic." Knight explained the reasons for tensions within the ARL Indigenous Council that lead to his dismissal: "There are no black fellas involved with One Community. We don't want to be grouped with Polynesians or Maoris. We are first Australians." One Community is the ARLC's community arm, distributing grants to grassroots football including indigenous Rugby grants. In a letter to Sarra, Aboriginal Rugby great Larry Corowa stated: "Chris, how do you live with yourself in the knowledge that you played a prominent and key role in our demise from ARLIC [ARL Indigenous Council]?" Larry Corowa also addressed Sarra saying "Is this the Aboriginal way or the Coconut way?" (As explained in The Advertiser: "The term "coconut" is a deeply offensive racial slur, suggesting an Aboriginal is black on the outside but white on the inside."). Corowa said of the ARL Indigenous Council: "The council is there to tick the boxes for white fellas,