Peter Garrett
The political commentariat was stunned in 2004 when Labor leader Mark Latham announced Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett as the party’s candidate for the seat of Kingsford Smith. Garrett had a long history of activism and environmentalism, and had stood for parliament once before, contesting the Senate for the Nuclear Disarmament Party in 1984. Garrett was elected and served as a cabinet minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments before retiring from politics and returning to music in 2013.