I¡¯m a longtime fan of Midnight Oil, the crusading Australian band whose thunderous performances set the standard for political activism in the 1980s.
I revisited some of their videos ¡ª check out ¡°Oils on the Water,¡± a 1985 concert for a taste of their energy, outlook and musicianship ¡ª following news last week that Peter Garrett, the Oils¡¯ former lead singer, will lead a crowd-funded review of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) submarine deal.
Garrett¡¯s selection (and the entire review) isn¡¯t some sop to woolly-headed antinuclear sentiment. He was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, and after that gig, did nine years in Parliament as a member of the Australian Labor Party. During that time, he served as shadow parliamentary secretary for reconciliation and the arts, shadow minister for climate change, the environment, heritage and the arts, and minister for environment, heritage and the arts when Labor took power in 2007.
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