- EXCLUSIVE PENNY DURHAM FORMER JOURNALIST AT THE AUSTRALIAN
- 3:26PM FEBRUARY 16, 2018
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Rock legend and former federal environment minister Peter Garrett says he was not prepared to serve under Kevin Rudd after the former prime minister won the Labor leadership back from Julia Gillard in a tumultuous battle in June 2013.
The Midnight Oil frontman, who had been demoted by Mr Rudd over the failed home insulation scheme, said “all bets were off” after he regained the leadership.
The day after the party swapped Ms Gillard for Mr Rudd — June 27 — Garrett, who had been an MP since 2004, announced he was quitting politics.
“I just made it pretty clear I didn’t really want to serve under that kind of leadership again,” he said in an exclusive interview for The Deal monthly business magazine. “I didn’t want to go dancing across the stage with bright lights on me making that point, because I was conscious of the fragility of the government.
“But at that point, all bets were off and so the best thing for me to do was just simply say, I won’t serve under him and I won’t stand again.
“It seems to me that it’s easy to be crazy brave in politics — it’s much harder to be consistent and disciplined.”
Garrett, who last year reunited with his band mates for their first national tour in 20 years, spoke about leadership and politics in an interview with former rugby great and columnist John Eales, published in tomorrow’s issue of The Deal.
Though he took some hits during his political career, Garrett said his only regret was not embarking on politics sooner.
“Building trust takes a long time,” he said. “I was an outsider.
“If I had come in earlier, it would have enabled me to have a greater network of trusted relationships to do the work I wanted to do.”
Garrett said he did not believe in “hero” leaders and argued that collaboration was key to good leadership.
“A figure at the front of the ship, saying ‘Trust me, we’ll get there’ — I think that’s very bankrupt and it doesn’t bring the best out in people. It’s very obvious in global politics that the ‘great man’ view of history is a recipe for disaster.”
Garrett said the relentless scrutiny and criticism of politicians stopped good people from standing for office.
“There are plenty of people who have said to me: ‘I would never go into politics, to go through the sort of things that you men and women go through’. And you can see that they’re someone who might have a contribution to make. I think that’s terrible. People decide, ‘I don’t want to be s..t-canned to hell, so I’m not going to go there’.”
He said a lack of team players in the Coalition was only partly responsible for its internal problems.
“There’s no doubt that (Malcolm) Turnbull is hampered by figures within his own party who don’t want him to do things that he’s said he would do. But that’s no excuse. That position is still arguably the most powerful position in the country and it requires the occupant to step up and lead, and he hasn’t.
“Like any other Australian, I wish he would, but I’m not holding my breath.”
He said one of Mr Turnbull’s greatest missed opportunities was his rejection of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, “a huge tragedy … The retreat from engagement with indigenous people is really, really poor and it sets us up very badly for the future.
“It’s a difficult road. But all the promise in the world that we have as a nation is hampered by our unwillingness to set right the first wrong that was created when the modern Australian nation emerged. If we get that right, we can do and be anything,” he said.
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