The former Labor education minister announced he was leaving the band in 2002 to focus on a political career, during which he came under criticism for the then Rudd government’s disastrous home insulation program.

After the June 2013 Labor leadership spill, in which Kevin Rudd deposed Julia Gillard as prime minister, Garrett announced he would not seek re-election at that year’s federal election.

“We know it’s been a while but we wanted to tell you that the five of us are finally making plans to get together again for some gigs next year. We’re looking forward to hopefully playing overseas and touring our homeland for the first time since 2002,” the band posted on its homepage.

Frontman Garrett also confirmed he will be releasing his first solo album.

He revealed in October last year that he started writing songs again while working on his recently published memoir Big Blue Sky.

“A surprising byproduct of writing words all day was to suddenly find music coming back,” he said on the band’s website.

The album’s name and the release date are yet to be released.

The news follows growing speculation last week that Garrett was planning a solo comeback after 15 years.