Announcement To Run For Kingsford Smith

Doorstop Interview

Transcript - Sydney - 10 June 2004

LATHAM: Thanks for coming along today. I am especially delighted that Peter Garrett has accepted my invitation to join the Australian Labor Party and to run for preselection for the seat of Kingsford Smith. I've asked the National Executive to deal with this matter under the party rules and they will be doing that, starting with a special meeting tomorrow. We have a very important responsibility of always ensuring the very best people are coming through into the national Parliament. That's something that's very much in the national interest, and Peter Garrett is someone who's got a lot to offer our political system, someone who's got a lot to offer the national Parliament. He has had a lifelong commitment to progressive causes. He is well-known to several generations of Australians who have enjoyed the music and energy of Midnight Oil and the important social causes that they raised. He is well-known as an environmental activist, as someone who is deeply committed to indigenous Australians, someone who is deeply committed to social justice and ensuring that the Australian people have better services, that we are [inaudible] to the common good in this nation.

I believe also that Peter will be a tremendous asset to the Australian Labor Party. He brings passion, conviction, energy to our cause and that's very important. A number of people tell me that people are talking more about politics these days. They've been talking more about politics in 2004, and coming into a federal election that's important. I want them to talk more about politics based on conviction, based on passion, based on the good ideas that we can put forward to the Australian people, and to have Peter Garrett as part of the Labor team would be tremendous indeed. So I thank him for accepting my invitation, for putting his name forward now as a preselection candidate for Kingsford Smith. We will hear from Peter and then take questions.

GARRETT: Thanks very much, Mark. Today, I've nailed my colours to the mast. It's an important day for me, for Labor and I hope for the country. It's a great honour to be given this invitation by Mark Latham and I've accepted it. I want to be a candidate. I want to be a member for the seat of Kingsford Smith. I'll work diligently and thoroughly, as I have in other parts of my life, for the people of this electorate. I won't take that responsibility lightly. I know I've got a steep learning curve ahead of me. I care a lot about the environment, but I also care passionately about other issues – about health, Medicare, about our schools, I've got kids, about the future of Australia. It's an exciting time to be politics. I want to join the Labor Party and I'm joining the Labor Party because I'll be a team player, a team player with Mark Latham and I just want to do the best that I can.

JOURNALIST: Why weren't you on the electoral roll, Peter? [inaudible]

GARRETT: It's important for me straight up to say that I take full responsibility for me not being on the electoral roll in the past. My understanding was that I was on the roll. I thought I had a silent enrolment. I have voted in previous elections. I have voted in referenda. I've even voted when I've been overseas. I've received no communication from the Electoral Commission that I'm not on the roll – no communication from them, that I'm aware of, to tell me that I'm not on the roll. I've voted and, as of yesterday, I'm on the roll as a regular enrolled candidate and that's where I'll stay.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] electoral roll don't you?

GARRETT: When you go into the polling booth – and you say to the people in the polling booth whether it is in Mittagong, where I currently live, or on the South Coast where I have voted or even in the Australian consulate in New York where I've voted – you fill out an envelope and you say, ‘I'm a silent person on this roll' and they say, ‘Fair enough, Mr Garrett.' They give you the forms, you do your voting, you put it in the envelope and you give it to the official in the booth. I've been doing that for a number of years on the understanding that I was casting a vote. I did cast a vote. However, if for some [inaudible] I'm not actually on the roll, I take full responsibility; I'm not blaming anybody else for it at all, and it's a wake up for me. Thankfully, it's come at a good time and I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to start my career with Labor on the right footing and not the wrong footing.

JOURNALIST: Why were you on the silent roll?

GARRETT: The decision to apply to be silent on the roll has been taken in the distant past. My recollection at the moment is not when that period happened but I'm happy to try and figure it out because I've been on the roll for a very long time.

JOURNALIST: What was your reasoning for going on the silent roll?

GARRETT: My reason for going on the silent roll was the period of the Nuclear Disarmament Party; because we were getting a lot of phone calls, a lot of people were interested in what we were doing, and I thought it would be better for myself and for my kids.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] is there some irony for all of those young people back in the 1980s who voted for you when you stood up against Labor and now you have basically [inaudible] to them?

GARRETT: Absolutely not. I've carried my convictions and my positive feelings about issues I want to work on through all my working life. The NDP happened in the 80s. We had the spectre of nuclear war facing us, the rearmament of nuclear weapons on all sides of the continent. I'm convinced and, in the maturing of time, concede that that international situation has changed. It's terrorism now; not nuclear disarmament. I think the policies that Labor has satisfy me that they're appropriate policies for this country to serve the national security. Of course, within a party, whilst I'd observe all the rules and the disciplines, I would argue vigorously for issues on the side but I'm in no way, in no way, am I letting down those people who voted for me 1984 and I'm inviting them to consider why I'm taking this step and to consider voting again.

JOURNALIST: Do you still believe Pine Gap should be closed?

GARRETT: I don't believe Pine Gap should be closed. I'm fully prepared to accept the position that Labor has taken. There's no doubt about that it's the threat of terrorism and the intelligence that we can gather from terrorism that is now one of the primary and most important things that Australia, in terms of our national security, needs to consider. I'm not in favour of Pine Gap being closed.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

GARRETT: I can understand the strong feelings that people have in this electorate. I can understand when people have their ambitions dashed but I also understand that there is a national interest here. The Leader of the Labor Party has invited me and I've accepted. I'm confident that good Labor members in this electorate and everywhere else will support that invitation.

JOURNALIST: Where are you going to live?

GARRETT: I'll live in this electorate after the next election but I haven't had the opportunity to consider where that will be. I haven't even decided whether I'll be in a faction let alone which branch but I can guarantee you that

I will apply myself diligently, honestly and in a way which I hope gets across to people, even those people who see that they have been left out, I want to come back here and lift them up a little bit.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

GARRETT: It is not uncomfortable for someone with my environmental background to identify the alternative Government of the day having [inaudible] environmental policies and able to bring them into effect. In particular, I have been impressed by the way in which Labor has address the most important environment issue of all – climate change and global warming. If ever you wanted to see solid policy already in place – it's a policy that I totally endorse and support – then you see it on climate change. That is one of the most compelling environment and social and national and international issues that we face. The Howard Government is virtually silent on it; Labor is not. I feel very comfortable with that.

JOURNALIST: Mr Latham, if you win the next election, will you offer him a front bench position?

LATHAM: That of course is a matter for the Labor caucus, but I would be surprised that if, sometime in the future, Peter wasn't a front line minister in a Labor government. He has got a lot to offer. He has a big contribution to make and of course we want that contribution to be made in the most appropriate capacity. Inevitably, it's a matter for caucus that, in the fullness of time, I would expect Peter to be there as one of our front line contributors.

JOURNALIST: Mr Garrett, wouldn't it be in your best interests to move into the electorate as soon as possible, ahead of the election?

GARRETT: Let's take one thing at a time. This happened very quickly and it has created a great deal of interest. I'm committed – if I become the member of Kingsford Smith – to moving into the electorate as soon as the election is completed and I will do that.

JOURNALIST: When did Mr Latham approach you and how difficult was it for you to make this decision?

GARRETT: We've had some informal discussions but really it's only been in the past week that we have actually talked. It was difficult for me to make this decision; I'll be really straight about it: politics is an imperfect game. We all know that. We see it on our television stations every night. And yet it is the best game we have for making the country work better. I could've thought about the Greens, I could've stayed as President of the ACF but I do want to make a national contribution for the life of the nation and the only way that I could see that I could do that effectively was by joining the Labor Party and I'm humbled that the invitation was given to me and I just want do my best.

LATHAM: We might just ask a few other journalists so we can hear the questions around.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible] electoral role business, you're saying that after 1994 – when you were last enrolled – you thought you were voting?

GARRETT: That's correct.

JOURNALIST: You were sending in postal votes when you were overseas?

GARRETT: And when I was here, I was going into polling booths and saying that I was a silent enrolee and, as a consequence, could I make the vote and I would vote in an envelope and that envelope would be then placed in the ballot box.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

GARRETT: That's correct.

JOURNALIST: So you voted in 1996 and in every election since then?

GARRETT: I'm going to have to go back – I know you're asking me and I'm happy to come back and look at all of my records. I certainly voted in the last election and I voted in 1996, I think on the south coast. Whenever I've been in the country, always, and whenever I've been able to vote, I have voted and I've never heard from the Electoral Commission about whether or not I was on the roll. Again, I take full responsibility for it and I recognise that it's one of these things in the system that has glitched me. Now, I'm standing up and saying I take that responsibility but I'm letting people know that I always voted when I could and I thought I was voting properly. I thought I was on the role and I'm now on the roll and I intend to stay on the roll.

JOURNALIST: What message do you have for the people in Kingsford Smith – the Labor members who may not welcome you?

GARRETT: I just want to go out and speak to them in a process of understanding. I want to be as genuine with them as I can. I want to convince them, by speaking to them, that I will do a good job for them as a local member. I want to let them know that the first show that Midnight Oil probably ever played as Midnight Oil – at least one of the first shows – was in Kingsford, just up the road. I want to let them know that I've served at Coogee. I've entertained people at the Coogee Bay Hotel. I've got friends in this electorate and contacts in this electorate. Look, I've spent a lot of time in a lot of states in Australia. I feel very at home in Australia and I'll certainly feel at home here.

JOURNALIST: But having a few beers at the Coogee Bay Hotel isn't going to be enough for them.

GARRETT: This may take some time but I'm convinced that, in the end, those people who are real Labor supporters will support the Labor candidate and I'm absolutely confident of that.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

GARRETT: Of course I would.

LATHAM: One more question.

JOURNALIST: [inaudible]

GARRETT: I spent a lot of time thinking seriously about what I was doing and I had number of responsibilities as ACF President that I wanted to square away. I don't take the decision lightly and I didn't take the offer lightly. It needed serious thought. It's a serious decision that I've made and now that I've made it I know I've made the right decision.