This ‘formidable combination’ of qualities drew Peter Garrett to the love of his life

Detailed summary

Plus what the former MP thinks of the “dinosaur sexism” levelled at Julia Gillard.

Peter Garrett is best known for being the frontman of Midnight Oil, and serving as an MP during the years of the Rudd-Gillard governments. Here, the 73-year-old father of three daughters discusses his relationship with Australia’s first female PM, and why he fell in love with his wife, Doris.

My maternal grandmother, Emily Collins, was one of the toughest, sweetest, most determined people I’ve known. In her early 20s, she travelled from the town of Nhill, Victoria, to Western Australia to work as a nurse, caring for Aboriginal people with leprosy. Her health would have been pretty rugged in her last 20 years, but I never heard her complain. She lived to the ripe age of 97. I got to know her well in her latter years after my mother, Betty, died in 1977.

My mother was a pioneer feminist. After World War II, she was one of the first big cohort of women to go to university. She became a social worker at a community welfare centre at The Rocks in Sydney. She was an incredibly warm and welcoming person but was also interested in the world around her. She was very outspoken in her views. From her, I think I certainly got some of my passion for politics.

I wasn’t a rebellious teenager. I grew up in a happy family, which is an incredible thing. If I had to have a celebrity crush, it would be Jacki Weaver. Back then, I just knew her as the big sister of a guy who lived down the road.

In the early days of Midnight Oil, Mum came to see us in this steamy little basement club in Sydney. She was definitely the first older person or family member – my dad, Peter, had passed away by then – to come to a show.

I’d had a few girlfriends but was committed to the Oils — we played six or seven nights a week. I met my wife, Doris, after Midnight Oil had just recorded our fourth album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The band had been to England and was just starting to get airplay. We met at a friend’s house one night.

Midnight Oil played with the Divinyls in the 1980s.

I gave an interview in…

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