This ‘formidable combination’ of qualities drew Peter Garrett to the love of his life

Peter Garrett is best known for being the frontman of Midnight Oil, and serving as an MP during the years of the Rudd-Gillard governments. Here, the 73-year-old father of three daughters discusses his relationship with Australia’s first female PM, and why he fell in love with his wife, Doris.

My maternal grandmother, Emily Collins, was one of the toughest, sweetest, most determined people I’ve known. In her early 20s, she travelled from the town of Nhill, Victoria, to Western Australia to work as a nurse, caring for Aboriginal people with leprosy. Her health would have been pretty rugged in her last 20 years, but I never heard her complain. She lived to the ripe age of 97. I got to know her well in her latter years after my mother, Betty, died in 1977.

My mother was a pioneer feminist. After World War II, she was one of the first big cohort of women to go to university. She became a social worker at a community welfare centre at The Rocks in Sydney. She was an incredibly warm and welcoming person but was also interested in the world around her. She was very outspoken in her views. From her, I think I certainly got some of my passion for politics.

I wasn’t a rebellious teenager. I grew up in a happy family, which is an incredible thing. If I had to have a celebrity crush, it would be Jacki Weaver. Back then, I just knew her as the big sister of a guy who lived down the road.

In the early days of Midnight Oil, Mum came to see us in this steamy little basement club in Sydney. She was definitely the first older person or family member – my dad, Peter, had passed away by then – to come to a show.

I’d had a few girlfriends but was committed to the Oils — we played six or seven nights a week. I met my wife, Doris, after Midnight Oil had just recorded our fourth album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The band had been to England and was just starting to get airplay. We met at a friend’s house one night. Doris had been studying in Australia, but was about to move back to Germany to live. I was smitten by her formidable combination of brains, beauty and a deep soul. It was refreshing to find someone that I was attracted to, wanted to spend my life with and possibly raise a family, which we did.

Midnight Oil played with the Divinyls in the 1980s. It’s well known that Chrissy Amphlett didn’t take shit from anybody. But maybe some of the bravado on stage wasn’t necessarily reflected in the way she was in real life. She was very sensitive and an incredible performer and a great songwriter.

I gave an interview in which I said Patti Smith was an incredible artist. We ended up exchanging emails. Patti said she’d been doing Beds Are Burning live, and wanted to ask Midnight Oil whether that was OK, and if we liked her version. It was double thumbs-up from the Oils. We’ve never met, as we keep missing each other due to touring. She is a great poet. There’s a lot of poetry in the way Patti writes.

As a Labor MP from 2004-2013, I was quite close to Julia Gillard during her prime ministership. She was such a strong person, given the amount of outrageous commentary and bullying that went on. Let’s just call it for what it was: dinosaur sexism.

I have three daughters – Emily, 40, May, 39, and Grace, 36. May and Grace do backing vocals in my band, the Alter Egos. It’s very sweet to have them on stage. I love to hook into a song and hear their cascading voices around me.

At home, I’m just the daggy dad who wants to put on his ugg boots and watch a bit of [AFL] footy; I hope that Essendon gets a bit better. At the very least, I’ve tried to instil in my daughters the sense that whatever they want to do, to do the absolute best they can; to be thoughtful, aware and empathetic to the wider world including other people, and the beautiful fabric of nature.

Peter Garrett & the Alter Egos are touring in November and December.

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