Richard Andrew Farley (9 December 1952 – 13 May 2006) was an Australian journalist, politician,

land rights Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use a ...

and

civil rights activist Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

for the rights of

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

s. He emerged in the public's eye as a prominent member of the

Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991, focused on the improvement of race relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. The Council for Aboriginal ...

, an organisation that looked to establish healthy, multicultural relationships between Aboriginal and

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...

peoples and non-Indigenous Australians.

Personal life

Farley was born in

Townsville Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 180,820 as of June 2018, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland; it is unofficially considered its capital. Estimated resident population, 3 ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, on 9 December 1952. In 1983, Farley married Cathy Reade. Together, they had one son and one daughter, Jeremy and Cailin Farley. They separated in 1996 and Farley went on to date

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

Linda Burney Linda Jean Burney (born 25 April 1957) is an Australian politician and is an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives, representing Barton since the 2016 federal election. She is Minister for Indigenous Australi ...

, the first Indigenous member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

and the former interim Leader of the New South Wales Opposition. Farley was described by those close to him as having had "an extraordinary ability to persuade, negotiate and build bridges to gain bipartisan support for the matters he was passionate about".

Career

Farley began his career as a journalist for the Rockhampton '' Morning Bulletin'', and as an advisor to the Federal Minister for Health in the Whitlam Government. He eventually became the executive director of the Cattlemen's Union of Australia and the chief executive of the

National Farmers' Federation The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) is an Australian non-profit membershipbased organization that represents farmers and the agricultural sector in Australia. Historically, NFF was a key player in a number of industrial relations disputes, inc ...

, a position he held for eight years. In 1989, while the head of the National Farmer's Federation, collaborating with Phillip Toyne from the

Australian Conservation Foundation The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is Australia's national environmental organisation, launched in 1965 in response to a proposal by the World Wide Fund for Nature for a more co-ordinated approach to sustainability. One high-profil ...

, Farley succeeded in acquiring a financial contribution from the Australian Government towards the national Landcare volunteer movement. Following the investment, Farley committed his life and his career to the needs of farmers, conservationists and to the process of

reconciliation Reconciliation or reconcile may refer to: Accounting * Reconciliation (accounting) Arts, entertainment, and media Sculpture * ''Reconciliation'' (Josefina de Vasconcellos sculpture), a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos in Coventry Cathedra ...

towards the Indigenous population. That same year, Farley ran for the Australian Senate as a candidate for the centrist

Australian Democrats The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Austral ...

. He represented the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...

on the platform of improving a future for all Australians by first establishing co-operation between Settler Australians and Indigenous Australians and by the conservation of the native ecology through the Landcare movement.

Death

On 13 May 2006, at the age of 53, Farley died after his wheelchair overturned outside Balmain Hospital in Sydney. He had been leaving after undergoing rehabilitation treatment for a

brain aneurysm An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a brain aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel. Aneurysms in the posterior circ ...

which he had suffered five months earlier. His funeral was held at St Brigid's Church, in

Marrickville Marrickville is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Marrickville is located south-west of the Sydney central business district and is the largest suburb in the Inner West Council local gove ...

. The service was attended not only by numerous prominent politicians and celebrities, but also by Indigenous Australians and rural cattlemen and farmers whom he had represented during his career. He was survived by his partner

and two children, to his first wife Cathy Reade, Jeremy and Cailin.

Legacy

Farley was actively involved in Australian politics, with the most notable being his contribution towards the creation of the Landcare movement, an environmental organisation with thousands of volunteers across Australia. In December 2006, Linda Burney nominated the Rick Farley Memorial Scholarship to encourage young Indigenous Australians to pursue environmental conservation and cultural management, and to honour his career as well as his achievements in life.

References

External links

For love of the land
��obituary in ''The Australian'', 15 May 2006

''Sydney Morning Herald'', 15 May 2006
National Press Club">Rick Farley addressing the National Press Club
, 26 July 2000 in the National Library of Australia collection of portraits {{DEFAULTSORT:Farley, Rick 1952 births 2006 deaths Australian chief executives Australian activists Spouses of Australian politicians People from Townsville