Former federal MP, Pat Farmer is running for the voice | The Wimmera Mail-Times | Wednesday, September 13,2023 - video Dailymotion

The Wimmera Mail-Times

Former federal member of parliament and ultra-marathon runner, Pat Farmer, stopped by the Wimmera Mail-Times on Wednesday, September 13, to chat with Sheryl Lowe about Australia’s ‘Voice’ referendum.

Transcript

00:00 Well, I started on the 17th of April and the reason why I'm running is because I have the

00:06 ability to be able to get the word out to people on specific issues.

00:12 I've done this all my life, I've raced all over the world, raising money for clean water

00:17 projects, clean sanitary conditions, Lifeline, Diabetes Australia, girls education, all sorts

00:24 of different things.

00:26 So the reason why I'm doing this is because I feel absolutely passionate about the voice.

00:32 This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to be able to vote and move forward together

00:38 as one nation, one group of people together.

00:41 And also I see this as an opportunity for us to be able to finally address some of the

00:46 problems of the past and to work towards solutions together.

00:52 And those solutions being pushed from the ground up, that's the whole idea of voice.

00:57 Instead of Canberra pushing decisions on Indigenous communities around Australia, the questions

01:05 will come from the communities and go through to Canberra and then hopefully we'll end up

01:10 with better policy.

01:12 We talk about the Constitution and about changes to the Constitution.

01:16 Can you explain what that really means?

01:19 It's pretty simple.

01:20 The Constitution is basically our book of rules and it was set up and only the Australian

01:27 people, the vote of the Australian people on the whole can change it.

01:32 And that's why it's so significant with the voice to be able to have it put into the Constitution

01:36 because we've had things like ATSIC in the past and we've had all sorts of Indigenous

01:41 representative groups in the past but when you get a change of government they say, "Oh,

01:48 the other government put this in so we're going to wipe it.

01:50 We're going to get rid of it and we're going to cancel it."

01:52 And so if it's part of the Constitution they can't cancel it.

01:56 And the best way for me to explain that is so many people know what it's like when one

02:01 government's in place and they're going to build a road or a railway line, they get started

02:05 on it, they do the feasibility studies, they spend millions of dollars on all those sorts

02:10 of things and they get down the track a little way with it.

02:14 The election comes along, they get voted out and another government comes in and they say,

02:18 "Okay, we're not going to build that road, we're not going to build that rail system

02:21 any longer, we're going to do a hospital or a footy field or something else instead."

02:26 So when it's explained to people like that they understand the practicalities of it all

02:31 and the fact that governments change, they undoubtedly change all the time and when they

02:36 change so do the decisions.

02:39 And certain decisions like this that actually affect the Australian people should not be

02:45 in the hands of the politicians to just change at a whim like that.

02:49 [ Silence ]

Former federal MP, Pat Farmer is running for the voice | The Wimmera Mail-Times | Wednesday, September 13,2023

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