The future

It’s quite clear. I can’t make it any clearer.
In the simple words of the English language
my government is the government of the future.
Whether or not we’ll be the future government
is entirely in the hands of the Australian voters
the Mums & Dads, the small businessmen & women all
looking to the future as we’re looking to the future.
Without us there can be no future. We are the future.
We’ll address future problems in the future but we’ll
start by addressing the future in the present. Now.
The past? Well, yes, of course I’m proud of our past.
No, not hundreds of lashes, not ringbarking trees
not the poisoning of the flour & the waterholes
not the bleaching of our coral, the waste of our water.
I’m proud of the service of our servicemen & women
their noble sacrifices, their victories, their defeats.
Yes, I embrace their defeats against impossible odds
as the whole of Federation embraced them at Gallipoli.
I regret the stabbing in the back of our boys in Vietnam
& the cowardly opposition to our forces now in Iraq.
Sometimes I long for the old days of conscription.
The past? No, I don’t want to dwell on the past.
The Liberals & the Nationals are marching in step.
There’s a buoyant economy. There are low interest rates.
There’s the lowest unemployment in over thirty years.
The past? The past eleven years aren’t the past.
In future, naturally, I’ll focus on the future
but I’m already focused on the future. Right now.
Even in the past I was focused on the future
that has now inevitably passed on into the past.
Yes, the future. We’ll march on into the future.
I won’t apologise. I categorically make no apology
for saying God save the future of this great country
from a future worse than death. God Save The Queen.