After losing her seat in the Victorian parliament and starting chemotherapy for kidney cancer, Reason Party leader Fiona Patten would be forgiven for stepping back from her role as a changemaker.
Instead, when parliament returns next week, Patten will be recovering from her second chemotherapy session – with another seven to go – at her remote NSW property in the Brindabella Valley, about an hour from Canberra, where she lives with partner Robbie Swan.Patten, who was first elected in 2014, has often been drawn to causes she connects with personally.
Now, following a cancer diagnosis a few months ago, she has a vested interest in the state’s health services and how dialysis and chemotherapy could be better delivered.“Having to schlep into a giant public hospital to get chemo, which involves all the stress of getting into those huge, unfriendly buildings – why can’t we do this somewhere nicer? Why can’t it be done at a local clinic?” she says.
“I had a great deal of respect for the people who didn’t always agree with me,” she says, naming conservative Tasmanian senatorFiona Patten says she will remain in an official position in the Reason Party.“I am a better person because of Senator Harradine. He made us work so much harder [for change], and he was so clever, and I learned so much from him.”
Following the 2018 election, Premier Daniel Andrews hinted he would offer Patten a job if she was not re-elected because her absence would be such a loss to parliament. “This is such a privilege and such an amazing opportunity to work in this place and represent people, that I really think it should be shared.”