Peter Garrett, the shadow minister for the environment, is suffering substantial damage to his reputation over the Tasmanian pulp mill.
He stands by Labor policy to support the federal government's decision to approve the mill, despite his long history as a leading environmentalist and his past presidency of the Australian Conservation Foundation. Environmentalists are already campaigning against him in his NSW seat of Kingsford Smith.
Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Greens, has ended their friendship and another former colleague, Geoff Law of the Wilderness Society, now describes Garrett as a traitor to environmentalism. Brown says Garrett has gone missing in action on the environment and many others have echoed these criticisms.
Yet these criticisms are beside the point. What Garrett thinks personally doesn't actually matter, other than ultimately to his conscience.
Politics is a team sport. Individuals, especially those with particular enthusiasms, need to recognise this. Major party politics is not made for determined individualists.
It is irrelevant to query whether the private and the public Garrett are on the same page, just as it is pointless to ask the same question of other politicians. Does Malcolm Turnbull really believe all he says about the pulp mill? Does Joe Hockey really believe all he says in defence of Work Choices? We may never know and it doesn't really matter. We judge them on their actions as ministers.
The same is true on other issues. Turnbull must bow to his team's view on the republic, at least until John Howard goes. Tony Abbott, at least since his loss of control over RU486, can only talk about his personal opposition to abortion.
Like it or not our Westminster system does not depend on ministers and shadow ministers believing what they say. Some might find this a remarkable statement, but government depends in practice on a collective view. In fact collective ministerial responsibility for government policy makes a virtue of group solidarity prevailing over individuals.
Ministers and shadow ministers will not always be on the winning side in internal debates about policy directions. They can argue their case strongly, of course, but they have to be ready to lose.
Nevertheless, unless they choose to resign from their positions on principle, they must then go out into the public arena and sell their party's policies whether or not they believe in them. They must flick the switch in their brains and become true believers in the government policy for