© Graham Dean 2007

YOU need to stop and listen, and YOU need to work it through,
When you seek amalgamation do NOT make another blue –
We are the ones who suffer. Do YOU understand our plight?
We the people of the country employ YOU to get it right.

Does the cost outweigh the distance, are your Bureaucrats in charge?
We just do not want the rhetoric or that righteous argy-barge!
YOU need to stop and listen and you need to understand,
This is not a place of refuge – it’s a hard demanding land.

We already have to travel to a dentist or a nurse,
And we understand the distance for this, the Outback curse.
If you seek to move our Councils and take the workers far away,
Do you think that in your conscience you might live to rue the day?

You need to stop and listen, YOU’RE the leaders of our state,
Do not think we’re unimportant as you contemplate our fate?
We have battled floods and famine with our Councils at our side,
This is not because we’re stupid or consumed by tarnished pride!

When the drought has caused a struggle as it has across the land,
It has been our local councils who have been there, close at hand.
When the floods cause devastation and the fires take all in sight,
The local council workers are the ones who lead the fight.

Should you centralise for numbers and the area means naught,
You would demonstrate no knowledge of the lessons we’ve been taught.
You cannot govern from a distance in this land so scarce in rain
For you risk the loss of families and you cause the townships pain.

So you know well of the cities with their neighbours o’er the fence,
To resist amalgamations in these places makes no sense,
Where the cities have their transport be that taxi, train or bus
They still reach their shire centre with the minimum of fuss.

Yet you seek to force the people whom you claim to represent,
To travel ‘cross the country just to pay the rates or rent,
And the vagaries of distance you are seeming to propose,
Do not make a scrap of difference to your comfortable repose.

Yes, YOU need to stop and listen. And You need to be in touch,
You need to STOP; and LISTEN. Is that asking far too much?
All the councils of the Outback need you standing by their side,
And not making Your decisions based on prejudice, NOT PRIDE.