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February 26, 2010
I landed in Melbourne this morning from photographing in Tasmania to learn that a wounded Peter Garrett, the Minister of Environment, had pretty much reached the end of his illustrious career. I was surprised. I thought from reading the headlines that the roof insulation story had been managed and controlled by the Rudd spin machine.
Presumably, an ambitious Garrett sought political power so as to make a real difference to the lives of the Australian population. If so, then that goal is clearly unattainable with his " reduced range of responsibilities".Garrett loses all responsibility for energy efficiency ( the insulation scheme, solar rebates and other energy-efficiency programs) and becomes Minister for Environment Protection (whaling, biodiversity and conservation) Heritage and the Arts.
The fallout from the home insulation disaster continues to widen, even though the Rudd Government has suspended the scheme, and Greg Combet has been bought into fix the government problems. If it is tough on Garrett, he knew the political game that he wanted to be a success in. He has been required by cabinet solidarity to announce so many pro-industry decisions on the environment that he has largely lost his green credentials. That is being a team player.
To be fair a lot of Garrett's troubles arise from the Rudd Government's poor track record on climate change, solar energy, as well as the rorting the energy efficiency and solar schemes by the shonky installers (spivs and fly-by-nighters)in the industry. These days Ministers are not sacked and do not resign when departmental public servants fail them because of their incompetence.
The judgement is that Garrett, politically speaking, is damaged goods, with limited opportunities for political rehabilitation.
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Not to forget that The failure of the ETS is a blow to the Rudd Government's claims to be a great reformer. These look to be pretences