An Anthem For A Sustainable Australia.

It seems Australians have voted for Labor to labour on with the degradation of our desert continent’s beautiful environment. “We’ve golden soil and wealth for toil,” we sing. Isn’t it time we Aussies eased up on ourselves and enjoyed our wealth instead of ‘toiling’ to turn what little rich, dark brown soil we have into more homes for people from overseas?

“First ever nation continent” would be a more appropriate line that makes explicit the significant fact that we’re the first (and so far only) continent-nation on Earth.

Perhaps we lack some self-esteem. Hard-work has long been held up as a virtue. But I suspect we’re growing out of that, thank God. It’s a sad fact that the biggest regret men have on their death-beds is that they worked too hard and didn’t enjoy life and the company of friends and family more. Peter Dutton’s work-from-home brain-fart policy that the Liberals back-flipped on came from a failure to understand that Aussies are over being convicts to the ‘system’.

Ahh… so it’s true what they say about Aussies being lazy and unwilling to do jobs only migrants will do!?

Well, yes… and no. We’re not a developing country or an overcrowded one with a police-state government. We’ve got it relatively good, so naturally our expectations are higher. Some people seem to think we should be punished for that. Personally I think the only thing we’re short of in this country is self-respect. A little more of that and we’d appreciate what we have and care for it more. Now I know without that, Aussies are not in the mood for tinkering with our national symbols – enough crazy changes are being wrought on us without proper debate. But if we did have the emotional reserves, we might consider improving our national anthem.

Advance Australia Fair’s lyrics are beautiful and it’s great that we rejoice in our natural environment, but some of the words are … well … just a tad ludicrous. Yes our soil is golden – as in yellow and infertile with rich mineral deposits deep below. But wealth is most definitely not something for toil. The anthem repeats this in the second verse:

“Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We’ll toil with hearts and hands”

It’s so 20th Century – like the Australian Labor Party.

Okay, FIFO work on the mines can be demanding and I’m not dismissing the farmers and country folk who are the salt of the Earth, but work doesn’t have to be hard all the time. It’s only because the likes of Gina and Twiggy can get – or threaten to get – immigrants in to work for a pittance if they want to, that working conditions are so unhealthy. The take-home pay in the mines can be very good – but why not spread the joy around, employ more people and make it less life-shortening?

I’m all for looking at northern development, by the way. We can advance Australia fair and keep our fingernails clean. We can do the hard yakka in the desert without getting skin cancer. It just takes a bit more generosity, care and thought for our workers.

So, “Beneath our radiant Southern Cross”, let’s sing …

“We’ll gather and join hands”

A good, hearty discussion about our anthem’s lyrics would do much to cultivate our national identity. That, of course, doesn’t matter to some people and others will even object to it, or insist that Australia’s identity is international.

“For those who’ve come across the seas
We’ve boundless plains to share”

Now this line really has to go, surely. The 5.8 million people who have come here over the past 20 years haven’t flocked to the deserts.

Maybe we could build a sustainable city in the outback – something like Masdar City in Abu Dabi – as part of an adaptation-to-climate-change strategy as the north gets wetter and the south dries up. Not to increase the population, but to sustain it.

Better we sing…

“We treasure love and liberty,
All creatures great and small;”

… and stop the species extinction crisis.

When God Save The Queen was phased out in the 1970s and ’80s, there were complaints from ecclesiastic quarters that Advance Australia Fair was entirely secular. I see no reason to avoid the word ‘God’ because it is very open to interpretation. If we are to give it an indigenous spirit as well, we could sing

“God’s Dream abounds in nature’s gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;”

The latest change to the lyrics of the anthem was in 2021 when “young” in the second line became “one” to acknowledge our long indigenous past. For more on that, see Lyrics Less Ludicrous.

Or… we could reconsider using the melody Waltzing Matlida with the unreservedly patriotic lyrics “God Save Australia” (Lyrics Less Ludicrous).

What do you think?