Peter Garrett Memoir To Be Amended Following Retraction Of Earlier Claim

Midnight Oil frontman and former Labor Minister Peter Garrett has requested comments he made in his forthcoming autobiography and in an ABC documentary be retracted following his claims that he was offered money by Clubs NSW upon entering federal politics in 2004.

According to ABC, Garrett originally claimed he was handed an envelope at a function welcoming newly elected MPs which contained, "hundreds, if not thousands of dollars".

Publisher Allen & Unwin are now amending Garrett's now-defunct comments in the autobiography.

"A representative came to me and said, 'look, great to see you coming into politics, and we're happy to provide some support'," Garrett said.

When he discovered that the envelope contained money in it, he handed it back to the representative.

"I didn't count it," he said.

"But it was hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. I wasn't going to accept money from them or from anyone in that way.

"But it was a very early taste of the way in which this sector could actually operate."

However, Garrett now insists that the envelope in question did not contain cash, but rather a cheque made out to his electorate office, which he claims to have returned.

To make the situation even more murky, Garrett also claims the event took place before he was even elected.

The 62-year-old singer took to his official website to release an official statement regarding the incident. 

"During the course of writing my memoir I recalled that in the run-up to the 2004 election I’d received, at an event for new candidates, an envelope containing a cash donation, which I’d returned straight away to the person who’d given it to me, a representative of ClubsNSW," the statement read.

"This was my recollection at the time and I referred to it in a later interview for a documentary. I understand footage used in last night’s ABC program included rushes not used in the documentary. I subsequently became aware, after checking with a person who was present when I was handed the envelope, that in fact it had contained a cheque made out to my federal electorate council. I immediately informed my publisher and the documentary producer of the error so it could be corrected – not because of any external pressure. Contrary to some comments and headlines in the media I have not made claims of illegal behaviour on anyone’s part."

Clubs NSW have "unequivocally rejected" claims of handing money to Garrett in a prepared statement.