Peter Garrett: 'beds are burning' protest - Melbourne 12 November 09

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts was in town to deliver a speech on energy saving, but environmentalists staged a welcome designed to remind him of speeches he delivered before he joined the ALP, in the days when he vigourously and vocally opposed policies he now defends ...

Video

It was really not very polite of Mr Garrett to arrive late and scurry out again when nearly everyone had left, because people had gone to a lot of trouble to put on a fitting reception - even to the extent of a genuine burning bed - which the attendant police were not very pleased about - and music that would have brought back memories...

There were brief speeches from Jim Green and Jacob Grech, representing FoE and the peace movement respectively, and one person took advantage of the open mic to put forward the claim that Garrett has all along been playing a double game, infiltrating the ALP purely so as to gather evidence of their dirty tricks, which he would then reveal while at the same time publicly resigning ...

The FoE website carries most of the text of a leaflet handed out to passers-by - http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/627 - but without the header: "Dear Mr Garrett ..

All we want for Christmas is for you to show some integrity and to put Aboriginal rights, environmental sustainability and peace ahead of your own political ambitions. That's all.

Thanks! Friends of the Earth" Video to follow soon - watch this space for a link to the burning bed, an anti-nuclear nun offering prayers for Peter, hip hop and more

[added - see http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/pc/videos/garrett-12nov09.mp4/view]