Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett
Peter Garrett is one of our most prominent living Australians. A renowned activist, former politician, and lead singer of Midnight Oil is along-time campaigner on a range of local and global issues. He served as president of the Australian Conservation Foundation fortwo terms, which saw significant additions to natural protected areas, and the ACF grow into Australia’s leading national environment organisation.
As Minister for the Environment he instigated the successful historic International Court of Justice case against Japanese whaling. As Minister for School Education he was responsible for introducing the national curriculum, and for legislating a new needs-based funding system for all Australian schools.
He is the only Australian politician to receive the ‘Leaders for a Living Planet’ award from the World Wildlife Fund and is a member of the Order of Australia for his contributions to the music industry and environment.
Following the release of Peter’s 2015 memoir “Big Blue Sky”, he returned to making music with his acclaimed debut solo album, “A Version Of Now”. In 2017 he and Midnight Oil regrouped after a 15 year absence for “The Great Circle” tour, playing 77 shows in 16 countries around the world. The band then recorded two new albums –“The Makarrata Project” (with First Nations Collaborators), and “Resist”–which each reached #1 on the ARIA charts. Across 2022 the Oils performed their final concert tour, calling for social justice and environmental sustainability.
Peter remains a prominent advocate for causes including ending the climate crisis, opposition to the AUKUS agreement, and the campaign for constitutional recognition and a Voice to parliament for First Nations people. He continues to make new music and will return to live performance later this year with a handful of special live appearances.
As Minister for the Environment he instigated the successful historic International Court of Justice case against Japanese whaling. As Minister for School Education he was responsible for introducing the national curriculum, and for legislating a new needs-based funding system for all Australian schools.
He is the only Australian politician to receive the ‘Leaders for a Living Planet’ award from the World Wildlife Fund and is a member of the Order of Australia for his contributions to the music industry and environment.
Following the release of Peter’s 2015 memoir “Big Blue Sky”, he returned to making music with his acclaimed debut solo album, “A Version Of Now”. In 2017 he and Midnight Oil regrouped after a 15 year absence for “The Great Circle” tour, playing 77 shows in 16 countries around the world. The band then recorded two new albums –“The Makarrata Project” (with First Nations Collaborators), and “Resist”–which each reached #1 on the ARIA charts. Across 2022 the Oils performed their final concert tour, calling for social justice and environmental sustainability.
Peter remains a prominent advocate for causes including ending the climate crisis, opposition to the AUKUS agreement, and the campaign for constitutional recognition and a Voice to parliament for First Nations people. He continues to make new music and will return to live performance later this year with a handful of special live appearances.
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Related Sessions
Better Than Yesterday with Osher Gunsberg with Peter Garrett
THU, OCT 19, 10:00 AM
Conference
Osher Günsberg (TV Personality/Author) and host of podcast Better Than Yesterday will host a live episode recording of his acclaimed podcast. Osher will be joined by Peter Garrett; long-time activist and campaigner on environmental and social justice issues. A member of Midnight Oil, one of Australia’s most iconic rock bands, he also served as a cabinet minister in the Rudd/Gillard Labor governments from 2007-13. During this session Peter will be unveiling a brand new musical project as well as retracing his extraordinary journey and the challenges we all face to make tomorrow better than yesterday.