Maybe it wouldn’t surprise you to know how constrained and routine most MPs’ lives become. It’s day after day of meetings to hear pleas for help; followed by night after night of dinners to keep party members and local leaders onside.

I’m not complaining, of course; it was an honour to represent 100,000 Australians in the parliament – and you’ve just got to do the work – but one of the reasons I started the Pollie Pedal, 22 years ago now, was to break free of the office, the suit, the white limo, and the departmental brief, to engage more with...