Once a politician, always a politician – at least when it comes to staying on message. Peter Garrett wasn't straying far from his talking points at the launch of his memoir, Big Blue Sky, in Sydney on Tuesday.
"Read the book," he encouraged the friends and supporters gathered at the Museum of Contemporary Art, including former NSW Labor leader John Robertson, singer Jimmy Barnes and author Thomas Keneally.
Garrett said he "completely" stood by his controversial description of former prime minister Kevin Rudd as an unpredictable megalomaniac who was "a threat to national security".
Rudd's office had responded by accusing Garrett of trying to "rewrite history" and "sell a book". Asked about that reaction on Tuesday, Garrett was on song: "I think it's important for people to read this book and understand the context."
Big Blue Sky largely recounts the former Midnight Oil frontman's life in music and his early interest in the environment and social justice. But it is his reflections on a decade in politics, particularly the rollercoaster Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, that have captured attention ahead of the book's release on Wednesday.
Garrett was demoted by Rudd in 2010 over administration of the troubled Home Insulation Program, in which four labourers died. In a chapter titled "The Fall Guy", Garrett maintains that Rudd "didn't need to dump me, and you would like to think a leader with any sense of loyalty or spine, like [Paul] Keating, wouldn't have".
Parachuted into the inner-Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith while Mark Latham led the ALP, Garrett was not a product of Labor's internal machine. Speaking at the book launch, he said reform was needed but declined to criticise the party that some believe tried to silence him during his time in office.
"Anything that I say about Mr Rudd or anyone else shouldn't obscure the fact that I have great faith in our institutions," he said. "I think they need rejuvenation and change, but the reason Australia is envied in other parts of the world is because of those institutions."
Garrett's friend and fellow Labor supporter, the author Thomas Keneally, was less forgiving of the party, saying the machine seemed not to "trust" Garrett as a party spokesman.
"His vision was quashed within this timid Labor Party that we've got now," Keneally told Fairfax Media. "When the Labor Party finds its voice – and it has lacked a voice since 1996 – they will start to let people like Peter occupy portfolios."
The memoir's launch has also been marred by a correction Garrett was forced to make about his claim that a representative of ClubsNSW had given him "an envelope full of cash" shortly after his election. A "clarification" inserted on page 409 of the book advises readers: "Peter Garrett wishes to make clear that the envelope in fact contained a cheque, made out in favour of his electorate council, and not cash."
Garrett said he had "no regrets at all" about his time in politics and even hinted at a possible comeback. "My take away from 10 years in politics is that politics is important and I would do it again," he said.
Keneally said he would not be surprised if his friend returned to the parliament.
"I think he's got more chance of coming back than Tony Abbott," he said. "He's only a young man after all. And he doesn't strike me as much of a gardener."
