Posted on 12/03/2007 3:32:58 PM PST by Shermy
SYDNEY, Australia - Peter Garrett _ the towering, baldheaded former singer of the disbanded Australian rock group Midnight Oil _ continued his long, strange tour from pop star to politician Thursday when he was named Australia's environment minister.
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With his wild dancing and strident voice, Garrett was one of Australia's most recognizable singers until his band broke up in 2002, after belting out politically charged hits for more than 25 years.
Garrett founded Midnight Oil when he was a law student in 1973, but the semi-punk rock group did not achieve global fame until its 1987 track "Beds are Burning" _ a protest song about Aboriginal land rights in Australia.
In 1990, the year after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the group staged an impromptu concert outside Exxon's New York headquarters with a banner that read, "Midnight Oil Makes You Dance, Exxon Oil Makes Us Sick."
A longtime environmental campaigner and advocate for Aboriginal rights, Garrett made his first foray into politics with an unsuccessful bid for the Senate as a member of the Nuclear Disarmament Party in 1984.
Alongside his singing career, Garrett also served as head of the Australian Conservation Foundation during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and sat on the international board of the environmental group Greenpeace.
The 6-foot, 6-inch singer disbanded Midnight Oil in 2002 to focus on his political career.
He was elected to Parliament two years later and enjoyed a meteoric rise through the Labor Party ranks, being immediately appointed as an opposition spokesman on the arts and Aboriginal affairs.
In December last year, Garrett was promoted to lead Labor's attack on then-Prime Minister John Howard's environment policies. But his high profile came with its own baggage.
Many former colleagues in the conservation movement accused him of selling out by softening his public stance on issues such as uranium mining and old-growth logging in line with Labor policies. Garrett has said that being a member of a major party is the best way to affect change, compromises notwithstanding.
"I want to seriously serve the Labor Party _ it makes people spit out their cornflakes, but it's true," Garrett told The Bulletin magazine in a 2005 interview.
Bob Brown, a senator with the minor Greens party and former mentor to Garrett, is among those who have recently accused him of selling out by supporting a controversial pulp mill project in Tasmania state.
"I worry about Peter, for him," Brown told The Bulletin last month. "It's a grand commitment to Labor. You can't do that without some internal hemorrhaging. I do wish him well. I mean that honestly."
On Thursday, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd appointed Garrett to be the environment minister in his new Cabinet, but appointed a second minister, Sen. Penny Wong, to take responsibility for climate change.
The move is widely considered a demotion for Garrett, who served as the opposition spokesman for both the environment and climate change prior to Saturday's election.
Rudd said the decision to split the environment portfolio among two ministers reflected the increased importance of issues such as global warming and renewable energy. Both Garrett and Wong are to accompany Rudd to the next United Nations climate change meeting in Bali, Indonesia, next month.
Nevertheless, many analysts see the decision as a rebuke to Garrett, who made a series of gaffes during the campaign, including reportedly telling a radio talk show host off-record that Labor planned to renege on a number of campaign promises once elected.
Garrett has said he was joking, and that his remarks were taken out of context.
The former rocker, who has shied away from the media since his campaign hiccups, did not immediately comment on his appointment Thursday.
Since being elected in 2004, he has worked hard to tone down his wild rocker image, favoring dark suits over blue jeans and leather boots. A self-avowed Christian, Garrett is also fiercely private about his private life, rarely discussing his wife and three daughters.
Garrett calls for carbon trading soon.
Mar 29, 2007 (The Australian Financial Review - ABIX via COMTEX) — The Australian Labor Party would introduce a carbon emissions trading system. On 29 March 2007, Labor’s environment spokesman Peter Garrett said that Labor is committed to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. He said that a market mechanism is an essential part of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Garrett said that Labor does not support nuclear power. He said that coal will remain ...
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-161243102.html
Mr. Reparations himself. “It belongs to them, let’s give it back.”
HEY NM if we could elect two actors as Governor in CA you could get former rock star as Minister of EPA in Austrila LOL!
I heard Burning Beds are a major source of carbon pollutants.
Wow...woke up this morning and Australia went bleeding heart liberal
freaks rule
I’ve always thought this guy was a flake, but I like his music.
they drank the whole damned pitcher!!!!!
‘Midnight Oil’ slick
carbon trading,, the greatest hoax&scam since snake oil.. ;-)
As they say... Elections have consequences... Hope they enjoy theirs...
Liberal/National Coalition VOTES:5,307,927 PERCENTAGE:47.12 SWING:-5.62
Australian Labor Party VOTES:5,955,841 PERCENTAGE:52.88 SWING:+5.62
Great old band. Commie politics excluded. They also did a really good song honoring the WW2 soldiers called Forgotten Years. One of the only bands I remember back then saying thank you to the troops.
What I want to know is how can he dance while my bed is burning???
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