The pink tail is hard to miss, swaying excitedly in the strong winds along the country road.
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Phoebe, the four-year-old Moodle is on a training run with owner Adrienne Carpenter in preparation for a bigger walk. The maltese poodle cross may be oblivious to the cause but her owner is not as she strides along a Collector district road in 60km/h winds.
Ms Carpenter, with her hair also dyed pink for the occasion, and Phoebe will next week embark on a 70km walk from Collector to Canberra's Parliament House to raise awareness of press freedom.
The 77-year-old told The Post she was so incensed about the Australian Federal Police raids on the ABC and on Daily Telegraph journalist, Annika Smethurst's home that she decided to take action.
"I thought 'how dare they.' What right do they have to raid offices when journalists are simply saying what is happening?" Miss Carpenter said.
"We're adults when we vote but politicians treat us like children afterwards and that's what annoys me. Whatever they have shouldn't be secret."
Smethurst was reporting on government discussions to allow the Australian Signals Directorate to spy on Australians. The ABC was raided after 2017 reports into Australian Special Forces operation in Afghanistan.
Miss Carpenter says more transparency is needed in government and is angered by what she sees as an erosion of press freedom over time. She stresses she is not a member of any political party.
Open communication is not her only beef. She said Australia's 2004 bugging of a Timor Leste cabinet meeting, reportedly to gain the upperhand in negotiations over oil and gas claims, was reprehensible. Miss Carpenter has condemned the government's current prosecution of a whistleblower and his lawyer.
"We need more whistleblowers, especially in big corporations, because politicians act like they're above the law," she said.
"We also need a Bill of Rights in Australia to protect people when they do speak out. They shouldn't have to fear prosecution."
Miss Carpenter also laments what she sees as "inaction" on climate change.
The Collector district resident has lived on her bush block for 34 years. Most of it - 70 hectares - is a conservation area. She was also one of the first to employ solar panels and has lived off the electricity grid for all her time on the property. Right now she's in the middle of planting a large orchard.
"I'm passionate about the environment and sustainability," Miss Carpenter said.
"...We must admire our young children who are demonstrating that we need to care for our beautiful planet so it will be a fit place for them and their children to live in. They put our politicians to shame."
She also fears for the future of young people on Newstart allowance. The Morrison government has refused to increase it from the current $277.85 per week but Miss Carpenter said politicians were happy enough to give themselves a payrise recently.
"What they allocate to themselves for a day could feed someone for a week," she told The Post.
The walk is her first foray into political activism but the challenge does not faze. Typically, she walks 10km a day and is used to keeping fit, with Phoebe by her side.
Leaving from Collector's Some Cafe at 9am Monday, September 16, Miss Carpenter will complete the walk over three days, camping overnight along the way. At Parliament House, she says she'll "speak to anyone who will listen."
Asked what her friends thought of the plan, she said they were all supportive.
"They say hooray for you but aren't you scared? But I'm not at all."
There will be no support crew but friends will meet her along the way. Phoebe will get a reprieve from the trek with rides in an antique pram bearing a press freedom message.
"It will just be me, the pram and my dog," Miss Carpenter said.
"I'm not raising money but awareness. Without freedom of the press we can't get at the truth and if this helps get a few people off their butts to at least meet me at Parliament House, then that's great."
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Louise Thrower
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
If you have a story to tell, drop me a line at louise.thrower@austcommunitymedia.com.au or call 0418 229 678.
