The land is blessed

with wide open spaces

human kangaroos

buffoons, emus

bandicoots, gallahs

and sqawking cockatoos.

 

An imitation nation

creatively inept

vacuously homophobic

and racist

laconic and patronising

governed by sleazy politicians

solipsistic and sycophantic

deal makers

and opportunists

full of artific eand guile

without proinciples

policies or vision.

 

A nation obsessed

by sport

its iconic heroes

hard men

built like bulls

muscular metronomes

with fur-lined armpits

and iron balls.

 

Nothing flourishes

in a desert of fairy floss

on the TV screen

presented unctuously

and loudly

with fake emotions

grimaces

and gesticulations

to viewers

complacent as cows.

 

The Anzac tradition

recurs annually

celebrating nightmares

of soldiers dying

for politicians

in Vietnam, Iraq

and Afghanistan.

 

Our craven governemnt

looked away

when the Indonesian army

invaded East Timor

and casually murdered

Australian journalists

at Balibo.

 

For twenty-five years

of oppression and genocide

successive

Australian governments

feted a monster in Jakarta

while foreign ministers

Ali Alitas

and Gareth Evans

sipped champagne

on an aeroplane.

 

The first Australians

live and die

in squalor

from degredation

and decay 

because

of governemnt

incompetence

and inertia.

 

Behind the scenes

extremists

employ shock jocks

and deniers

as propaganda proxies

to distort the truth

vilify and defame

in the name

of free speech.

 

At schools

our children

are taught

to memorise

the Naplan way

imported from the USA

and learn to be proud

and patriotic

every Anzac Day.

 

Governments

keep the truth at bay

by immortalising myths

of heroism

and sacrifice

while scurrying

backwards

the traditional

hypocritical

Australian way.