Pat Farmer came home this afternoon, bringing his Run for the Voice to Campbelltown.
Among those welcoming the former Member for Macarthur to his old stomping ground was the current federal member, Dr Mike Freelander.
Mayor of Campbelltown George Greiss also shook the ultra marathon man’s hand in front of the council building in Queen Street.
“We welcome everybody that comes to Campbelltown,’’ the mayor said afterwards.
Farmer arrived along Queen Street accompanied by members of his family, along with support runners.
The welcoming party included his long time friends Ray James and his wife Pauline, both long time stalwarts of Campbelltown.
As he turned onto the council building on arrival, Pat Farmer ran to hug Mrs James, pictured above.
After patiently having his photo taken with the people who made the effort to show their support for him, the 61 year old answered a couple of questions during an interview with the South West Voice.
We started by asking him if the negative polls suggesting the referendum would fail were spurring him to work even harder for the Yes case?
“I’ve always fought for the underdog, and feel this is something that really needs to be drawn into the arena,’’ Farmer said.
“I feel very, very privileged at the moment with my body holding together, and I am able to do this,’’ he said.
Farmer said he had no regrets at all about going on this 14,400km run around Australia, which started in Hobart in April and will finish on October 11 in Uluru in the Northern Territory.
“I believe in this with all my heart and my bones, and I am putting my body on the line every single day of the week in every weather condition,’’ he told the South West Voice.
“I am going out in the communities and meeting with them and seeing everybody, I am not just dealing with the friendly people in the cities.
“I sat at the back of the car that one time with a guy who was a roo shooter, and who was dead against the referendum, up in North Queensland.
“By the time we’ve finished the discussion he was on board.
“So we just need the clarification along the way and I think that’s where the doubt lies, a lot of people are just uncertain, and once they have a chance to speak with someone who can provide them with the facts they’re fine.’’
Farmer, who served three terms in Canberra between 2001 and 2010, also has some advice for the Prime Minister.
“I was a little disappointed by the Labor Party, because they didn’t come out harder on this.
“I said to the PM, why don’t you get into the fight, and he said, I don’t want it to be political, but the problem is the Liberal and National parties already made it political,’’ he says.
Farmer reveals that before he started out on his run around the country, he did some due diligence, speaking to no fewer than three constitutional lawyers.
“They absolutely assured me that the only thing they had a sticking point with was what meant by the executive, whether it was the federal government, the ministers, right down to the local police officers,’’ he said.
“That was in the early days, and but it was nutted out so I am very happy with it – incredibly confident in fact.’’
We put to him that the Voice referendum is starting to look a bit like the 1999 vote on the republic, which was knocked back by the people because they did not want to put their trust in politicians to choose the president?
“I agree with you, because nobody trusts the politicians, but at the end of the day if the people had got a choice we would have ended up with Shane Warne as president of the Republic of Australia,’’ Farmer says.
“At that time he was the most popular person in the country.’’
Farmer was planning to stay the night at Campbelltown before heading down to his next stop, Wollongong, tomorrow morning.
