Pat Farmer will arrive in Canberra on Monday morning on his run for the Voice campaign. Photo: Supplied.
Pat Farmer is surprisingly calm for someone who is running right around Australia for 14,000 long kilometres.
He’ll be here in the national capital by 8 am on Monday for a 5 km bridge run around the Lake in support of the Voice to Parliament Yes campaign, and ‘marathon’ doesn’t begin to describe what he’s been doing since April.
Starting in Tasmania, the ultra-marathon runner and former Liberal MP is circling the continent before ending up at Uluru in mid-October. He’s run 10,000 km so far with a further 4000 in front of him.
It was, he says, his daughter’s suggestion.
Pat is no stranger to running for cases: his running shoes have taken him all over the world, running to promote causes from access to clean water to women’s education. Most famously, he ran around Australia for the centenary of federation before entering federal parliament as the Liberal MP for the southwest Sydney/Southern Highlands seat of Macarthur.
At 61, he wasn’t necessarily expecting to load up the caravan and get moving again but says the cause was too important for him to ignore.
“I was a member of the Howard government and I’d sit in those joint party room meetings and hear learned people argue all the reasons why we could not apologise to the stolen generations, all the lawyers telling us it would cost billions, the people who thought we’d lose everything by admitting that fault.
“Back then, I thought those people were smarter than me. In 2007, thank goodness, we lost the election and I watched Kevin Rudd and Brendan Nelson apologise on behalf of the nation for stealing people’s children and destroying families. It cost us not a cent but went so far towards the healing process.
“I can’t help but feel the same fraudulent reasons are being advanced against the Voice and that’s what empowered me to run,” he says.
Pat Farmer will be joined by Yes vote supporters as he runs around Lake Burley Griffin. Photo: Supplied.
Pat says he’s most troubled by the arguments raised by politicians he thinks should know better. In particular, he points to the frequently argued position of not having enough detail on proposed constitutional inclusions.
“The Constitution is our book of rules. The legislation puts into effect the detail after it’s debated in parliament. Politicians know that’s how it works, and yet instead of saying that, they tell people the detail is missing. It’s just a lie and I’m happy to call them out on it,” he says.
Some days on the run have been harder than others. Pat says the long days in remote Western Australia were toughest, with temperatures of up to 38 degrees, thousands of flies, road trains inches from him and that “big long line of liquorice stretching into the heat haze every single day” in front of him.
There have been no major mishaps or injuries and he hasn’t been long enough in any one spot to be too troubled by the weather, despite passing at least one bushfire along the way.
Everywhere he goes, he uses the run to start conversations with people, fill them in on details from the Yes case and present information in a straightforward manner.
Reactions have been mostly positive, although some people have taken the trouble to cross six lines of traffic to “stick their fingers in my face and shout at me about voting no”, he says.
“Sadly, I’ve come across a number of people in this country who are caught in yesteryear’s bigotry. I won’t repeat the language they’ve used to me; it is completely out of line with today’s standards.”
The run goes on to Yass from Canberra and Pat will then head along the Hume Highway to Melbourne and on to Port Augusta before reaching Alice Springs and Uluru.
He arrives at Reconciliation Place on Monday morning at 8 am for an 8:15 kickoff. He’ll run around the Lake with Member for Fenner Andrew Leigh and Rob de Castella. Yes23 campaign supporters are encouraged to join at their own pace, running clockwise via the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and then Kings Avenue.
On Monday night, Pat will join Andrew Leigh and Indigenous Marathon Foundation graduate Joyrah Newman in conversation at the ANU’s Kambri Cultural Centre at 6 pm. Places are limited; you can find more details on Andrew Leigh’s website.
You can also follow Pat’s progress on his website, where his Strava beacon shows his location each day. Members of the public are welcome to join the run.
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