Peter Garrett

The Honourable Peter Garrett AM, MP, BA, LLB
The Hon Peter Garrett AM MP
Australian House of Representatives Member for Kingsford Smith
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 October 2004
Preceded by	Laurie Brereton
Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 September 2010
Preceded by	Simon Crean (Minister for Education)
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts
In office 3 December 2007 – 8 March 2010
Preceded by	Malcolm Turnbull
Succeeded by	Peter Garrett
Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts
In office 8 March 2010 – 14 September 2010
Preceded by	Peter Garrett
Succeeded by	Tony Burke (Environment, Heritage), Simon Crean (Arts)
Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts
In office December 2006 – 5 December 2007
Preceded by	Anthony Albanese
Personal details
Born	16 April 1953 (1953-04-16) Wahroonga, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party
Spouse(s)	Doris Ricono-Garrett (m.1986)
Children	Emily, May, Grace
Residence	Randwick, New South Wales
Alma mater	Australian National University, University of New South Wales
Occupation	Politician, Activist, Musician
Website	http://petergarrett.com.au

Peter Robert Garrett AM, MP (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and politician.

Garrett was lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil from 1973 until its disbanding in 2002. He served as President of the Australian Conservation Foundation for a total of 10 years and, in 2003, was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his contribution to the environment and music industry.

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. After the Labor Party won in the November 2007 election, Garrett was appointed Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. On 8 March 2010, his portfolio title was changed to Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts. He continued in this role in Julia Gillard's first Ministry. He was re-elected at the 2010 election and was appointed Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth by Prime Minister Julia Gillard. He was sworn into this portfolio on 14 September 2010 as a member of the Second Gillard Ministry. In 2009, the French Government appointed Garrett an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2010, WWF Australia and International presented him with their Leaders for a Living Planet award.

Music and activism

Born in Sydney, Garrett attended Barker College in Hornsby before studying arts at the Australian National University (ANU) and later law at the University of New South Wales. About the same time he became a singer with the Australian rock band Midnight Oil in 1973, after responding to an advertisement placed by one of the band's founding members, Rob Hirst. In tandem with their musical and commercial success, the band were long identified with environmental causes. They were particularly critical of United States' military and foreign policies during the 1980s. Garrett is known for his trademark "stiff and sudden" dance movements in performances.

Garrett was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation (1989–93, 1998–2004). He 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.

On and off stage, Midnight Oil often made political statements. At the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the group performed before the Prime Minister, John Howard, and a television audience of hundreds of millions, wearing black overalls 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, effectively spelling the end for the group. He has since ruled out any future musical projects, stating that his musical career was always exclusively bound to Midnight Oil.

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

On 7 July 2007, Garrett presented Crowded House at the Australian leg of Live Earth.

On 14 March 2009, Garrett (with Midnight Oil) also performed live at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Sound Relief to raise money for the Victorian bushfire appeal.

Australian federal politics

Garrett's first attempt at entering politics was in 1984, when the Nuclear Disarmament Party invited him to stand for a New South Wales seat in the Australian Senate at the federal election in December. He refused at first, but after consulting the band, he agreed on condition that he head the ticket. He needed 12.5% of the vote to win a seat in the Senate voting system, but a primary vote of 9.6% was insufficient when Labor gave its preferences to the conservative Liberal and National Parties ahead of the NDP.

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 9 October, increasing the Labor majority there.

In June 2005, Garrett was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts.

Garrett has modified many of his earlier 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. 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. Garrett's change of stance drew criticism from both journalists and Midnight Oil fans, who contrasted Garrett's former pronouncements on environmental and political issues he made before joining the Australian Labor Party.

While the media sometimes labeled him a "turncoat", some commentators, such as the Canberra Times columnist John Warhurst, defended his need to be a "team player" if he was going to play the political game "from the inside".

Garrett campaigned for Labor in the 2006 Victorian State election. There was controversy when he sent a letter to the constituents of the seat of Melbourne, where Labor and the Greens were embroiled in a tight contest. In the letter Garrett urged voters not to vote for the Greens, claiming they were in alliance with the conservative Liberal party. 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

A polling booth at the 2007 election.

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

Garrett has been criticised for giving support to the Gunns Company's plan to build the Bell Bay Pulp Mill in the environmentally sensitive Tamar Valley, Tasmania.

In the 2007 Federal election, Garrett was re-elected to his seat with a 4.56% swing towards him. However, his campaign was fraught with a number of tactical errors, including journalist Steve Price claiming that Garrett had said to him that Labor would simply change all their policies once they got into power. This was disputed by Garrett as a "short jocular conversation".

On 29 November 2007, the Prime Minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, named Garrett Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts; however, his responsibilities did not include the climate change role, which was given to Penny Wong.

On 20 December 2007, Garrett approved a controversial plan to dredge Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay. This move has attracted strong criticism from environmental groups who are concerned that the 23 million cubic metres of sand, rock and contaminated silt dredged from the bay's shipping channels will affect fishing and tourism in the area.

Garrett approved a major expansion of South Australia's Beverley uranium mine in August 2008, saying the uranium mine would use world's best practice for environmental protection. Garrett's decision was praised by the uranium industry, but criticised by the Australian Conservation Foundation which said the decision would result in the mine spreading acid and radioactive pollution over 100 square kilometres.

Garrett announced in October 2008 that the government would be withdrawing all $2.6 million funding from Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).

In 2009, Garrett would not give the proposed $2 billion mill in the Tamar Valley the go ahead until more studies were undertaken on its potential impacts to marine environments. A new condition was put on the mill meaning Gunns could be liable for criminal and civil penalties if the mill is approved and breaks defined "environmental limits".

In December 2009 Garrett made his final decision on the Traveston Crossing Dam (on the Mary River (Queensland), rejecting the proposal. Garrett determined that the impacts of the proposed dam on nationally listed threatened species (Australian lungfish, the Mary River Turtle and the Mary River cod) would be too great and unacceptable impacts on matters of national environmental significance.

On 26 February 2010 the Prime Minister reduced his appointment to the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts. This demotion was in response to Garrett's administration of the Home Insulation Program (HIP) which was linked to four deaths, over 100 house fires and allegations of fraud.

It was revealed in May 2010 that Garrett had written to the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, on four separate occasions raising concerns about safety. Further to this, the Hon Gary Gray – Special Minister of State and Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity, revealed that the environment minister was demoted, losing responsibility for the insulation program, because Rudd had a shocking interview on The 7.30 Report and needed a scapegoat.

He states: "The majority of caucus felt he had been badly treated. For Rudd and his office to position Garrett as the fall guy was disgraceful, weak, sneaky, unprincipled and just plain wrong. All along, Peter properly put his objections to the administration of the program on the record. How can you have a situation where Rudd executes complete and total influence, micromanages everything, yet not the home insulation program? The shape and execution of the program was certainly designed by the prime minister's office, if not the prime minister himself."

Garrett was re-elected at the August 2010 election with a substantially reduced majority, surviving a two party preferred negative swing of 8.1%. After the election he was appointed Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth.

Political positions

School chaplains and secular student welfare workers

On 7 September 2011, as Education Minister, Garrett announced a Government alteration of the National School Chaplaincy Program by offering schools the opportunity to employ, instead of "a religious support worker" (chaplain), a "secular student well-being officer".

Personal life

• Garrett is married and has three daughters.
• Garrett's childhood was spent in Wahroonga, the oldest of three boys who all attended Barker College.
• His father died while he was still at school. His mother died in a fire at the family home, during his period at university.
• In 2007 the artist Michael Mucci entered a portrait of Garrett in the Archibald Prize.
• Garrett is the uncle of Nickelodeon Australia personality Maude Garrett.

External links

• Garrett's maiden speech in the House of Representatives
• Peter Garrett's personal webpage
• OfficialPeterGarrett @ Myspace.com
• Search or browse Hansard for Peter Garrett at OpenAustralia.org
• ALP clears runway for Garrett's next gig
• Sedition bill a threat to arts
• 2006 video interview by John Foreman on Channel 10's Big Night In – discusses concluding Midnight Oil's career with the ARIA Hall of Fame induction and the ALP's policies
• How Peter Garrett lost his voice Discusses Garrett's early years and family
• Midnight Oil website

Political offices
Preceded by Malcolm Turnbull as Minister for the Environment and Water Resources	Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts 2007–2010	Succeeded by Himself as Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts
Preceded by Himself as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts	Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts 2010	Succeeded by Tony Burke as Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
		Succeeded by Simon Crean as Minister for the Arts
Preceded by Simon Crean as Minister for Education	Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth 2010–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Kate Ellis as Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth
Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Laurie Brereton	Member for Kingsford Smith 2004–present	Incumbent