Peter Garrett, AM, MP |
Peter Garrett was born in Sydney and attended Barker College in Hornsby before studying arts/law at the University of New South Wales.
Elected as Labor Member for Kingsford Smith at the 2004 federal election and appointed Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts in 2007, under the Rudd Government, Peter Garrett is more widely known as the front man for political activist band Midnight Oil.
Prior to his move into politics, Peter Garrett served two terms as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation (1989-1993, 1998-2004) and two years on the international board of Greenpeace terms.
He has 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 was renowned for its strong lyrics advocating environmental conservation and the plight of homeless youth and Australias indigenous community. 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 Prime Minister John Howard and a television audience of hundreds of millions, wearing black tracksuits bearing the word "sorry."This referred to the Howard Governments refusal to apologise to Aboriginal Australians for the former policy of removing of Aboriginal children from their families.
The bands protest and benefit shows, notably the anti-Exxon performance on a truck-top in the streets of New York, and of course the afore-mentioned sorry suits performance at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games closing ceremony, were hallmarks of a thirteen-album career culminating in the ARIA lifetime achievement award in 2006.
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.
On July 7, 2007 Garrett presented Crowded House at the Australian leg of Live Earth.
Since appointed as Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts in 2007, Garrett has come under some fierce criticism for his apparent reversal of stance on many environmental and global issues. Among these is his support to the Gunns companys plan to build the Bell Bay Pulp Mill in the environmentally sensitive Tamar Valley in Tasmania, his approval of the controversial dredging of Port Phillip Bay, and his support of the US-Australia alliance.
❊ Web Links ❊
➼ Peter Garrett, AM, MP
➼ www.petergarrett.com.au
➼ www.midnightoil.com
➼ www.greenpeace.org
➼ www.acfonline.org.au
➼ www.surfrider.org.au
➼ Peter Garrett - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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