POLITICS Lead singer of rock band runs for Australian parliament seat

Newspapers reported that the candidate hasn't voted in the last 10 years.
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- The former lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil announced Thursday that he will run for parliament with the opposition Labour Party -- and party leaders said he could even become a government minister someday.
Peter Garrett, a committed environmental activist with a distinctive bald pate, had long used Midnight Oil as a forum for his political views. The band broke up in 2002 after 25 years.
"Politics is an imperfect game We all know that," Garrett said. "We see it on television stations every night; and yet it's the best game we have for making the country work better."
Labour had asked Garrett to run, and he'll try for a seat from a Sydney district that is a Labour stronghold. Party leader Mark Latham said he expected his star recruit to become a senior minister someday.
"He's got a big contribution to make and of course we want that contribution to be made in the most appropriate capacity," Latham said. "I'd be surprised that if sometime in the future, Peter wasn't a front-line minister in a Labour government."
Midnight Oil scored a major international hit with its 1986 protest song about Aboriginal land rights, "Beds Are Burning." The band played the tune at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The other time
Garrett has been involved in campaigns against genetic engineering, coastal development and the nuclear industry. In the early 1980s, he was narrowly defeated in a bid for a seat in parliament's upper house on a nuclear disarmament ticket.
Earlier Thursday, several Australian newspapers reported that Garrett had not voted in the last 10 years -- a period that included three federal elections and a referendum on whether Australia should become a republic.
Garrett did not specifically address the reports but said he had voted in the past. Voting is mandatory in Australia; failing to do so is punishable by a fine.
"I have voted in previous elections; I have voted in referenda; I have even voted when I was overseas," he said.