According to the green lobby, Peter Garrett has left nasty stains on his copybook over his failure to help pulp the Wesley Vale initiative.

Greens climate spokesperson Christine Milne told The Australian on Monday that, if the incoming government wanted to be fair dinkum about its environment policies, they would need to put a tough nut into the top job.

“Peter Garrett is not that person,” Milne told The Oz. “He is still peripheral in the Labor Party, he’s seen as a lightweight… he’s certainly not seen as anyone with power or influence in the leadership team.”

The Long Man has had his ups and downs on the campaign trail, most notably the beat up over some ill-considered one liners he threw at shock jock Steve Price in the celebrated Chairman’s Lounge Incident.

Campaign blues and critical Greens notwithstanding, the whisper is that Garrett could get the nod for the big Black Job.

He has plenty to offer in the portfolio of Indigenous Affairs. He may be relatively inexperienced in the parliamentary bear pit and lack a factional power base, but he makes a visceral connection with Indigenous Australia in a way that very few other denizens of the house on the hill can manage. Garrett gets it.

Expect the Rudd Government to be a plodding, managerialist affair along the lines of the Labor state and territory governments. The new Prime Minister never tires of brandishing his ‘economic conservative’ credentials and he isn’t about to scare the horses stabled at the big end of town.

In this vision challenged environment, an Indigenous Affairs Minister who has not only spent time in the bush, but has been unashamedly captivated by the experience, will provide some refreshing relief.

In his maiden speech to Parliament, Garrett fondly recalled his meeting with Pintupi and Warlpiri elders on their country during Midnight Oil’s winter 1986 ‘Diesel and Dust’ tour of the Western Desert, describing it as “one of the most profound personal experiences I have had.”

The man’s Oil-fuelled commitment to Indigenous Australia is well documented. But his pre-rockstar trips to Top End communities like Numbulwar don’t get the same publicity, because you don’t find out about them unless you ask him.

Making Peter Garrett Minister for Indigenous Affairs may well prove a happy confluence of the power and the passion.