Peter Garrett? Who’s Peter Garrett?

Where has Shadow Environment Minister Peter Garrett been hiding? How is it that a close friend of Prime Minister John Howard is now more vocal on a major environmental issue than the man who once penned the lyrics to Blue Sky Mine ?

New green pin up boy Geoffrey Cousins had a go at Garrett on Lateline last night:

GEOFFREY COUSINS: Well, [Turnbull] is our only hope. I mean, the Shadow Minister, Peter Garrett, I’ve described him as the shadow minister who doesn’t cast a shadow. We never hear from him, I mean, Peter Garrett, he used to be a significant voice in environmental matters. Gets into parliament based on that and never speaks.

TONY JONES: But you’re not targeting him, you’re targeting Malcolm Turnbull and his narrow marginal seat.

GEOFFREY COUSINS: Well, wait and see. Wait and see. And I’m very critical of Peter Garrett, I believe that, you know, he has completely been neutered, he’s been tied up, put in a box by the Labor Party and told to shut up.

Crikey consulted our Tuesday Top 20 to see if the Shadow Minister has rated a blip on the radar over the last two months.

Last week the Gunns pulp mill arrived as a national headline as Cousins jumped head first into the debate — but when it comes to media mentions, Garrett didn’t even make the list. Paul Lennon is there, so’s Malcolm Turnbull. But the voice of Garrett (dissenting or otherwise) is nowhere to be heard.

How about the week of 14-20 August? Can’t see him.

The week of 7-13 August? Not there either.

Let’s check the week of 31 July – 6 August. No.

Finally, we found Peter Garrett, ranked at number 16, wedged between Joe Hockey and Mark Vaile in the week 17- 23 July:

Has Peter been too busy practicing lines with the adviser that has effectively spun him into paralysis? 

This morning he was let out to speak to Radio National Breakfast.

He opened with whales. Until Fran Kelly questioned the difficulty he found himself in given that the ALP supports the Tamar pulp mill.

“Labor’s always said, …I’ve always said it as well  … that we support a value adding downstream processing pulp mill that meets world’s best environmental standards, and that’s always been the position,” said Garrett.

“Is this mill that?” asked Kelly.

“Well that’s up to the minister to go through the processes of enabling us to see whether it is or not.”

Kelly asked uncomfortable questions like “Yes, but you must have a position?” and “Is this environmental portfolio becoming increasingly uncomfortable for you?” and “Isn’t it embarrassing” that “normally you’d be standing alongside people like Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward,” and other campaigners “but now you’re being targeted?…”

But like any good politician, Garrett deflected the attention back to his opponent and repeated the key message, over and over again:

“It’s up to Minister Turnbull to make sure that he properly assesses and scrutinises…”

“…my job as an environment shadow is to make sure Minister Turnbull properly and diligently assesses…”

Kind of makes you long for the clarity of a single “Sorry” pinned to a shirt.