A Federal interjection

For the past three months, this site has concerned itself with the wonder of the WA Legislative Council and Legislative Assembly, found through searching Hansard. However, today there's a slight change as we bring a Federal Government related post - and not something quoted in Hansard...

FOR six years, former Cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone has been working on a secret project to write a song of gravitas to make Australians feel proud of their country.

Senator Vanstone told The Sunday Telegraph she penned the lyrics to the tune of Land Of Hope And Glory, from Pomp And Circumstance, after she became aware of the need for more national songs.

The song - which she stresses is not intended to replace or rival Advance Australia Fair - is designed to be played alongside Waltzing Matilda and True Blue as Australian classics.

"The drafting began something like six years ago at either a Boxing Day or Australia Day lunch with a whole lot of mates," Senator Vanstone said.

"We all decided ... that we needed another song of gravitas because at school functions and things, once you've sung Advance Australia Fair, there isn't another gravitas song.

"Some ceremonies that people go to - State funerals, school break-ups, etcetera - have more than one important moment."

Senator Vanstone had her lyrics recorded by an Opera Australia singer and submitted a demo tape to Sony BMG, Australia's largest record company.

[...]

Senator Vanstone said she was yet to receive any feedback on her tape from Sony BMG.

"They didn't tell me what they thought. What did they think about it?"

[...]

The song is separated into five verses, signifying different aspects of Australia as a nation.

The first verse sums up the entire song, with the subsequent verses going into more detail.

"Indigenous Australians were here first, we are an immigration country, freedom is what we've enjoyed all our lives, and we are under southern stars - everyone knows the Southern Cross," Senator Vanstone said.

The lyrics to Under Southern Stars:

Home to first Australians,
Joined from near and far,
Shining light for freedom,
Under Southern Stars.

Nation made of many,
Bound in hope as one,
Building for the future,
Under Southern Sun.

Free and Friendly Nation,
Born of our own hand,
Peace our greatest virtue,
Mighty Southern Land.

Valiant into Battle,
Courage to the end,
Standing firm for freedom,
Loyal southern friend.

Nature's earthly heaven,
Glory for our eyes,
Ours alone those treasures,
Under Southern Skies.

Shining light for Freedom

Under Southern Stars.

With the likes of Vanstone and Houses & Motions' muse Woodhams [see: 'Budget Pie', 'I Love A Sunburn Daily' and 'Advance Australia Equal'] present in Australian politics, there is a danger of some kind of Poll Idol - but who wants to see Alexander Downer singing again?

Subject: Vanstone penned ode to Australia over six years

Date: 4 February 2007

Reference: news.com.au, with AFP

[Thanks to Dave for the story]

Tags: parliament, parody, vanstone

Before Greenough, there was...

MR OMODEI (Warren-Blackwood) [12.53 pm]: It is grand final time again in the lower south west and I have penned the following prose, with apologies to Banjo. It goes like this -


It was somewhere down the country in the land of tall, tall trees,
They formed an institution called “The Lower South West Football League.”
The stock are hard and tough and wiry, the types that never say die,
From stockmen, cauli growers, tree pluckers, spud growers, timbermen, with an odd Greenie thrown in just to have a try.
It is the mill town boys again, Southerners from Pembi, Northcliffe and Quinninup and Deanmill,
From Manji, the Mill and Dingup who will fight this battle royal till they die.
Then there will be the umpires, their eyes dull, their heads flat, with absolutely no brains at all, all trying to ruin the game.
The boys from the tall timber country will make the AFL look tame.
It will be hard and rough and bloody as the struggle ebbs and flows,
The result of the battle still no-one knows.
And all the cracks will gather for the fray,
The oldies from Pembi, there will be Cooda, Foxy, Dan, Luz, Stoich, Ginge and Johnno and maybe Flick and Johnny T. too.
From the Mill there will be Harv, Boomer, Massey, Spiro, Peo, and maybe Cooky and Tutty too, hoping to see the game through.
But when all the dust has settled and the siren sound long gone,
It will be Giaco, Gibbo and the East and Moloney boys fighting for the glory,
Or Della, Gilly, Cozzi, the Ditas and all the Ohs who will be victorious.
And when all the dust has settled and all the supporters gone home,
The Deanmill and the Southerners boys will crack a can or two and reflect upon the game.


I wish brothers Danny and Peter Lunardi all the best for the game on Sunday. I think it will be a great event.

Subject: Lower South West Football Grand Final [Legislative Assembly - Statement]

Date: 20 September 2001

Hansard reference: p. 4126 [online (pdf)]

Tags: wa, state government, perth, parliament, omodei, prose, football

Greenough is Greenough

Yesterday, the daylight saving bill was finally accepted by the Legislative Assembly. In memoriam of a sane time zone, I thought I'd share another one of the member for Greenough's brilliant compositions:

Mr G. WOODHAMS: [...] During my browsing in the National Gallery of Australia and the National Library, I came across, not unexpectedly, a poem dedicated to daylight saving. It was written by that well-known poet or poetess - not Dorothea Mackellar. The poem is called I Love A Sunburn Daily -

The love of beaches and stubbies
Of chardonnays by the pool
And doing deals in Sydney
With Coles and Woolies too
Strong love of wearing raybans
While driving in your Govvie car
I know but cannot share it
Because this time you’ve gone too far

See I love a sunburn daily
An extra hour will not work
The last time we were asked to try it
We were still recovering from Premier Burke
I love my faded curtains
And cows producing latte
My clock on Western Standard Time
And more bloody hours at Bunnings on Sunday

The tragic Labor government
And those swingers Matt and Johnny D
Long lunches with revenge intent
Giving Eric an extra hour to spend our surplus. Free.
Let the Greens tangle in the upper house
Where the Ljiljannas coil,
And trendies deck the lounges
After a hard day’s toil

Core of my heart, my rolex
Her ticking body so sweet
Mum and Dad rolling around in the morning
There’s a scene hard to beat

Mrs D.J. Guise: That’s too much information!

Mr G. WOODHAMS: Members will read into this bill what they want to read into it; that is what I have been hearing throughout the debate! The poem further reads -

But then the clockheads gather
And we can bless again
The dopey daylight savers
Who haven’t got a brain

Core of my heart, my cheap imitation bought in Thailand Rolex
In this land that time forgot
An extra hour every day,
And Carpy wants the lot.
We now have one fat time zone
All lined up with the Congo
Even the Mandurah line can run on time
With Alannah the Station Master keeping time on the bongo

The filmy veil of woopy weed
That thickens in the air
Pot smokers another hour to burn and indulge in vacant stare.
A summer of endless daytime
No clock to hold her back
This wilful, lavish land sucking mid strength
Can’t catch a taxi, mate they’re enjoying the sunset at Cottesloe
And the flag fall will set you back.

Mr Acting Speaker, this is the last, I think very important, verse of one of Dorothea’s lost poems -

All you who have not loved her,
Daylight savers You don’t understand -
Though sunburn holds many splendours,
And of it when I die,
I know to what Time Zone
My homing thoughts will fly.

Mr Acting Speaker, I am in an emphatic mode; maybe you did not gather that. Maybe some of the soft-headed modernists, as I refer to them, on either side of the house do not understand it, either.

There was a forum in ancient Rome, during the Roman Empire, known as the senate, in which there were several Caesars. Members may know about the senate and about Caligula, who appointed his horse as his successor emperor.

Mr R.C. Kucera: A bit like the leadership of the Liberal Party!

Mr G. WOODHAMS: The member may be correct, and I will not dispute him on that note.

Subject: DAYLIGHT SAVING BILL (NO 2) 2006 (WA Legislative Assembly)

Date: Tuesday, 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a (online (PDF))