Garrett was lead singer for the band Midnight oil.
Posted on 07/09/2004 9:22:29 PM PDT by naturalman1975
Garrett slips up on joint training agreement Gerard McManus 10jul04
PETER Garrett has set himself on a collision course with his leader, Mark Latham, after criticising the joint training agreement with the US.
Mr Garrett's anti-US policy blunder came as Prime Minister John Howard accused Mr Latham of being super-sensitive over the Bush Administration's comments on Australia's involvement in Iraq.
Mr Garrett, who ditched his opposition to US bases in Australia when he joined the Labor Party, said yesterday a joint training facility should not be "unilaterally announced" by the United States.
The proposal needed to have a full and thorough discussion before being approved by the Australian Government, Mr Garrett said.
Told that Mr Latham supported the training facility, Mr Garrett recanted.
"Well, if Mark Latham thinks it is a good idea, and that's what the party view is, then there's merit in it and we'd accept it," he said.
And Mr Howard described the Opposition Leader's indignation over comments made by US Deputy Head of State Richard Armitage as "an extraordinary double standard".
"Mr Latham says it's perfectly OK for him to call George Bush the most dangerous and incompetent President in living memory," Mr Howard said. "Yet when a member of Bush's Administration states what many people believe to be a fact, there's something wrong."
Mr Armitage said this week the Labor Party was "split down the middle" over Mr Latham's early withdrawal policy - a claim denied by party figures who have accused him of using private conversations to interfere in Australian politics.
Mr Armitage's comments have been strongly criticised by former Labor prime minister Paul Keating and Liberal Malcolm Fraser.
Mr Fraser said the comments by the senior Bush official were "quite unforgivable " and dangerous in the lead-up to a federal election.
But Mr Howard rejected the commentary yesterday, and said there was no difference between the Armitage intervention and anti-Bush film-maker Michael Moore's bucketing of him earlier in the week.
Mr Latham said that if Mr Fraser and Mr Keating could agree, alarm bells should ring with the Government.
"I think it's wise to say we are better off staying off each other's democratic processes, out of each other's election campaigns." he said.
Mr Howard yesterday rejected Labor's statement that he had compromised Australian troops by distributing a brochure depicting him with soldiers in Iraq.
Labor frontbencher John Faulkner said the brochure was sent out in Mr Howard's Sydney electorate, and flouted Defence pleas for images of Australia's military personnel not to be used for electioneering.
"The brochure was circulated in the electorate of Bennelong by the Liberal Party, in an envelope with the Liberal Party logo on it.
"How much more political can you get?" Senator Faulkner said.
The PM's office said clearance for the images had been obtained from Mr Howard's department and from the Defence Department.
I remember that dude back in da day he became poltican? WHOA
I remember being hell of singer but his politics were whack out
Midnight oil is actually one of my favorite bands of all time. I always hated their message, even though im pro-enviro and animal rights they are radical neo-liberal facists.
But, the music rules~!
It looks like Garrett is going to be the Labor party candidate for the Australian federal Parliamentary House of Representatives seat of Kingsford Smith at the next federal election. If so, he will almost certainly be elected (Kingsford Smith is a heavily Labor area). He ran for the Senate back in 1984 for the Nuclear Disarmament Party, but without success.
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