Dear PM...

I wrote this in December 2013, and used it for a poetry competition at Logan Library a couple of years later. I didn't win, but I got some good comments.

Don’t tell me not to protest, I’m going to speak my mind.

I’m mad as hell at where we’re at, the course that you’ve defined.

You know that what you’re doing’s wrong, you can lie but you can’t hide

the devastation you leave behind – what happened to your pride?

You do not have a mandate, regardless of what you think –

are there no depths left to which you will not sink?

We used to have a country of which we could be proud

but your climate change denial is leaving a big dust cloud.

You’re killing the Reef, the trees, the earth, you’ve all but lost the plot.

Our heritage, our future, to you don’t mean a jot.

You’ve taken from the poor, the gap widens in every way

but it’s not the poor who’ve got us to the state we’re in today.

You’ve no shred of humanity to care for refugees,

could you survive in the appalling conditions your minister decrees?

We’re moving backwards far too fast, the Lucky Country no more -

we lost that title well and truly when you got your foot in the door.

The NBN, NDIS, environmental care,

Gonski, Holden, stop the boats – you don’t want them here.

You spouted big before the vote – you promised no surprise -

yet all you’ve done since taking office is prove you’re full of lies.

We’re tired of you Tony, you don’t say what you mean.

We’re waiting for the day when you will finally come clean.

Now it’s time to tell the truth – what are your plans for us?

Not that we’d believe you when all you say is suss.

You’ve had your fun, you’ve sowed the seeds, Murdoch can now reap

this country, Australia, that you sold down the drain too cheap.