Australia's Garrett savaged for uranium mine decision

Jul 15, 2009, 6:08 GMT

   Sydney - Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who railed against nuclear power as lead singer with 1970s rock band Midnight Oil, was at bay Wednesday over his decision to approve the country's third uranium mine in 20 years.

   Garrett, who was a candidate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party at the 1984 general election before winning a seat in Parliament in 2004 for Labor, approved the Four Mile uranium mine, 550 kilometres north of Adelaide.

   'When you recognize that the party has made a decision about a policy matter over which you may have had a different opinion, you accept that party decision,' Garrett told reporters. 'I came into the parliament to be a team player.'

   Opposition Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull mocked Garrett, who in the 1970s penned anti-mining songs like Dead Heart and Blue Sky Mine.

   'He spent his whole life denouncing uranium mining and wanting to shut it down,' Turnbull said. 'Now he's opening a new one.'

   The millionaire former rock star spent a decade as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation before agreeing to stand in a safe Labor seat.

   Before he became environment minister, the shaven-headed Garrett continued to speak out against uranium mining.

   'I have always maintained ... that our country is as far into nuclear activities as it ever should be,' Garrett said in a debate over uranium policy at the 2007 Labor National Conference. 'I have long been opposed to uranium mining, and I remain opposed to it. I am unapologetic about this. In fact, I am proud of it.'

   Bob Brown, the leader who tried to snare Garrett for the Greens, denounced his former friend as a sellout.

   'Peter has sacrificed himself to Labor politics,' Brown said.

   Garrett founded Midnight Oil when he was a law student in Melbourne in 1973, reaching a worldwide audience with Beds are Burning, a protest song about Aboriginal land rights, in 1987.

   The band played at the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics in 2000, splitting two years later.

   The 55-year-old has proved a better performer on stage than in his parliamentary role as spokesman on the environment. He was humiliated by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who stripped climate change from the environment and heritage portfolio, leaving Garrett - as one wag put it - to be 'minister for mostly new plays and old buildings.'