Midnight Oil is touring Australia, not just the state capitals but the football clubs and small town hotels of middle Australia, promoting its latest CD "Redneck Wonderland," whose cover depicts a kangaroo toting a rifle over its shoulder. Garrett, 45, says the title is taken from a piece of graffiti and warns of what Australia could become as racism fans out across the country amid growing support for a fledgling far right political party.

Musical Conscience

Midnight Oil has been Australia's musical conscience for the past two decades. Songs such as "When the Generals Talk" and "Beds Are Burning" helped propel the band to international acclaim, and also acquainted music fans with such weighty issues as disarmament and aboriginal rights. Garrett, a lawyer by training, is listed among a group of 100 prominent people as a "Living Treasure" by the National Trust of Australia. He has been at the forefront of campaigns for the environment, disarmament and civil liberties.

"One of Midnight Oil's roles is to be social critic and to reflect against those things we believe are hostile to our idea of Australia," Garrett told Reuters in a recent interview. "We didn't set out to write a tough record, it just happened by osmosis - we absorbed the events of the day and produced a record which was highly charged."

"There is an urgent need to renew our national focus and recognize our national strength of being a tolerant and diverse immigrant society which has no truck with old-world racism and paranoia," Garrett says.

Uncomfortable Australia

"Comfortable suburban home. Too afraid to go out on your own. Comfortable place on the couch," sings Garrett in criticism of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's conservative view of the world. After his landslide victory in 1996, Howard promised to govern for all and make the so-called "lucky country" a comfortable place. Almost three years later, many Australians feel decidely uncomfortable, particularly Asian migrants and Aborigines, as a racism debate ignited by nationalist politician Pauline Hanson's One Nation party continues to burn.

Hanson wants to roll back aboriginal land rights reform and also argues for protectionist trade policies that would benefit her core farming supporters. Howard has refused to attack Hanson directly, arguing that all Australians have freedom of speech, and that Hanson would be a short-term political phenomenon. But with an early election now expected in October, opinion polls suggest One Nation could gain the balance of power in the upper house Senate. "There has been an extraordinary failure on the part of the conservative parties and their leadership in Australia to deal with the issue of One Nation," says Garrett.

White Skin, Black Heart

"You had the rednecks roaring for blood and then they wanted more...white skin, black heart, white skin, black heart," Garrett sings in "White Skin Black Heart."

Garrett says politicians have failed to explain the free market policies of the past decade, which have seen rapid change. He says they have failed to listen to the worried voices of middle Australia, particularly from the bush. Now disillusioned voters are turning to One Nation and its anti-Asian, anti-Aboriginal, protectionist policies. They have reverted "`to a very narrow and parochial, introverted view of nationalism, which seeks to identify enemies within Australia and blame the powerless and the different for the problems that are foisted on them by governments," says Garrett.

"Let's be really clear about it, One Nation will be a failure in the long-term as a political force because their policies are illogical, inaccurate, fanciful and reprehensible," he said. "They are anti-community, anti-society policies. They are the policies of race and exclusion, when you strip it all back. But they are giving the appearance to people that they can deliver and are listening. The reality is they won't."

From Yahoo News, by Michael Perry

(Note: this article has not been approved for reproduction.)