Power and the Passion: Aussie Rocker Joins Labor Party Leadership as Climate Change Point Person

photo originally uploaded  by mrs lala

Peter Garrett, the Midnight Oil front man turned Australian Labor Party politico, has moved to the frontbench in Parliament as the opposition's shadow minister for climate change and the environment.  The post gives Garrett, a veteran greenie, a high-profile perch as global warming becomes a key campaign issue in the upcoming 2007 Australian federal elections. One of Green Wombat's favorite bands, Midnight Oil's in-your-face post-punk agitprop kept the beat on environmental destruction, nuclear disarmament and Aboriginal rights for 26 years. Garrett, the former head of the Australian Conservation Foundation, left the band to run for Parliament and was elected in 2004 to represent Sydney's eastern beach suburbs, including Green Wombat's old stomping grounds in Coogee. Garrett's rapid rise owes to a shake-up last week in the Labor Party's leadership. It should be an interesting ride. As a political activist, Garrett was hardcore on enviro issues. But now the man who once sang "Sometimes you've got to take the hardest line," and "It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees," has to toe the party line. Still, Garrett isn't one to back down. At the closing ceremonies for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Midnight Oil performed "Beds are Burning," their Aboriginal land-rights anthem. Sitting in the audience was conservative Prime Minister John Howard, whose steadfast refusal to apologize to Australia's Aborigines for the genocidal polices of the past had become a hot political issue. As the Oils took the stage before a worldwide television audience, they ripped off jumpsuits to reveal shirts emblazoned with "Sorry." The video is below.