Former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett started a new job promoting alternative environment policies for Australia yesterday as the center-left Labor Party uses his profile to try to end a decade of conservative rule.
In his past, Garrett the rock star played to packed stadiums from London to New York during 26 years with Midnight Oil, becoming an ardent opponent of the nuclear industry and advocate for the environment and Australia's Aborigines.
But after two years in Australia's national parliament, Garrett has been promoted to Labor's spokesman on the environment and says politics is "more fun" than a rock tour.
"I really enjoyed my time on the road with the Oils," Garrett told the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio in the northern Queensland town of Bundaberg, where he was campaigning with Labor leader Kevin Rudd.
"To be able to spend some time out here in the community as a member of the Labor front bench ... with, I think, really good things to say to the people of Queensland, a tremendous privilege and a tremendous buzz," he said.
"I want to put the Howard government on notice, it's fiddling while Australia burns," he said.
Garrett said climate change was at the forefront of the community's mind in a country currently ravaged by a lengthy drought and facing dangerous water shortages.
"We can't afford to sit on our hands and wait, we need to commit to targets and timelines -- something the Howard government persistently refuses to do," Garrett said.
One of his famous stunts was playing a protest concert on a truck outside of the New York headquarters of global oil giant Exxon, and an anti-nuclear concert Jabiluka uranium mine in Australia.
Political analysts welcomed Garrett's promotion, saying his image should help Labor sell its environment policies to voters and help stem growing support for leftist Green candidates.
The environment is shaping up as a major issue for the next elections, due next year.
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