Peter Garrett

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Peter Garrett campaigning in Melbourne for the 9 October 2004 Australian election

Peter Garrett, MP, AM (born 16 April 1953), is an Australian musician and politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives for the seat of Kingsford Smith, New South Wales, since October 2004. He was appointed as Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage, Arts in December 2006.^[1] He was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from the 1970s to their disbanding in 2002. He has served as President of the Australian Conservation Foundation.

1 Music and activism
2 Australian federal politics
3 Personal Life
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Music and activism

Garrett was educated at the Australian National University in Canberra and then at the University of New South Wales, where he graduated in arts and law respectively. He was a rock singer and environmental activist before entering politics. He became lead singer of the successful Australian rock band Midnight Oil in 1973. As well as its great musical and commercial success, the band became well known for its commitment to environmentalist and left-wing causes, and was particularly critical of United States military and foreign policies during the 1980s.

Garrett was one of the founders of the Nuclear Disarmament Party and stood for a seat in the Australian Senate in New South Wales at the December 1984 federal election. He needed 12.5% of the vote to win a seat in the Senate voting system, but received just over 9% of the vote.

Garrett served as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1989 to 1993 and 1998 to 2004. He also joined the International Board of Greenpeace in 1993 for a two-year term. He served as adviser and patron to various cultural and community organisations including Jubilee Debt Relief, and was a founding member of the Surfrider Foundation.

Midnight Oil had a history of making political statements through their music and performances. For example, at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the group performed before Prime Minister John Howard and a television audience of hundreds of millions, wearing black tracksuits bearing the word "sorry." This referred to the Howard Government's refusal to apologise to Aboriginal Australians for the former policy of removing of Aboriginal children from their families.

In 2000 Garrett was awarded the Australian Humanitarian Foundation Award in the Environment category and in 2001 he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New South Wales. He left Midnight Oil in 2002 to concentrate on his environmental and social activism. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003.

Following the Asian Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, Garrett and the other members of Midnight Oil reformed for two gigs as a part of the fund raising event WaveAid.

[edit] Australian federal politics

In June 2004 Labor leader Mark Latham announced that Garrett would become an Australian Labor Party candidate for the House of Representatives at the 2004 federal election, in the safe New South Wales seat of Kingsford Smith which was being vacated by the former Cabinet minister Laurie Brereton. There was some initial criticism from Labor members in the electorate, as this overrode the local branch's wishes. He won an easy victory on October 9, increasing the Labor majority there.

Garrett has modified many of his earlier radical views and says he is now a "team player" in the Labor Party. He now supports the U.S.-Australia alliance, and no longer opposes the Joint U.S-Australian Defence Facility at Pine Gap^[2]. He says he will argue for environmental causes inside the Labor Party, but will observe the decisions of the ALP caucus, including accepting any decision to change Labor's "no new uranium mines" policy. ^[3]

During the 2006 Victorian State election campaign, Garrett urged voters to not vote for the Australian Greens, but for his own Labor Party, even though according to Environment Victoria, the Greens had a stronger environmental platform. This incurred the ire of Greens leader and former Garrett ally, Bob Brown who accused Garrett of having "sold out" and of going against the green movement, since joining the Labor Party. ^[4]

Although Garrett firmly supports the separation of Church and State, during his time in Parliament, he has commented extensively on the implementation of Christian values and how "personal values should and do inform one's day to day thought processes and decision-making." ^[5] ^[6]

In June 2005, Garrett was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts. Writing in The Bulletin magazine, political commentator Laurie Oaks suggested making Garrett the ALP's environmental spokesperson, in light of the debate on climate change and questions over the performance of the then spokesman Anthony Albanese. ^[7]

In December 2006 Kevin Rudd, the newly-elected Labor Party leader, announced that he planned to appoint Garrett to his frontbench. Garrett was subsequently appointed as Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage, Arts[4].