Liberals suddenly realise that Peter Garrett was in Midnight Oil

The Liberals, on the defensive after John Howard gambled the Australia-US alliance on George Bush defying the US Constitution and staying president beyond 2008, yesterday made a startling discovery.

ALP shadow minister for the Environment Peter Garrett was once in a rock band! Not only that, but he was in a rock band called Midnight Oil that sang songs in the early 1980s that don't exactly line up with ALP policy in 2007!


Oh, he's THAT Peter Garrett! We wondered what Peter was going on about.

Extraordinary. Imagine if the voters in 2004 had realised who Peter Garrett was!

Anyway, by using this incredibly obvious embarrassing piece of ancient news, the Liberals were able to, as respected and objective political journalist Andrew Bolt wrote, "knock the paint off one of Labor’s brightest stars". Fellow impartial News Ltd writer Matt Price argued that Garrett had "slip[ped] up in an Oily moment".

Genius.

Sadly, once he realised his role as Shadow Minister for Anything Midnight Oil Sang About Twenty Years Ago, Garrett boringly restated his agreement with ALP policy, as he has done repeatedly since joining the party.

Meanwhile, John Howard's record for consistency in policy statements remains completely irrelevant to political discussion.

PS Here's a news tip: apparently, Peter Garrett, now ALP shadow minister for the environment, was once heavily-involved with an environmental group! Scandalous. Nobody tell the Liberal Party, okay? SHHHH.