Can Peter Garrett rock the Lodge? Some see a future PM

By Robert Wainwright, SMH
March 25, 2006

COULD the former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett be prime minister?

As the ALP seeks a long-term answer to its leadership squabbles, an unusually quiet and unassuming member for Kingsford Smith has emerged as a potential future leader after barely 18 months in Parliament.

It may not be a big stretch of the imagination, considering the political transformation in the US of Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

One senior Labor official said: "Peter has impressed a lot of people with his policy brain. He needs time as a shadow minister so he can get key portfolio experience, but there are people in the party who see that potential [to be leader]."

An experienced party powerbroker, Bob McMullan, one of Mr Garrett's closest parliamentary colleagues, also responded positively: "Leading the ALP? It's not out of the question.

"I can't see a Labor government in the future without a big role for Peter as a policy player.

Whether he gets beyond that is still too early to tell. He is an innovative policy thinker and I expect he will play a big role.

"What progressive parties need are leaders who give people hope that things might be better, that they can change the country for the better if there is a change of government. Peter has that quality but leadership requires more than that. Until people are really tested you can't really tell."

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, is unequivocal: "Absolutely electable. The Labor Party would do extremely well to take Peter on as leader. The rank and file would be delighted with the news.

What they need is not just a power politician but one with a social conscience."

And Mr Garrett? "There is no way I am going to buy into your very eloquent hypothetical," he told the Herald during a wide-ranging interview about his budding new career.