This will only be of interest to Australians. In commemoration of Pauline's recent holiday from public life I would like to offer this humble piece of doggerel.

At present it's just a bush ballad, but I'll conjure up a tune in the next day or 2 ready to perfrom at the folk club in Thursday night.

THE QUEEN OF IGNORANCE

Here's a song for the queen of hairdos, of twinsets and lips pursed
Her ignorance now her downfall, her simple faith her curse
A true-blue redneck's martyr, a St. Joan for all that's blind
She'll be canonized and lionized, but she ain't on *my* mind

She's sitting out in Wacol, mouldering righteous rage
Finally feels the madness and the misery of the cage
That punishes mere children for their colour and their race
Who wait without conviction, who just came to the wrong place

She wanted longer sentences, she's got what she desired
Will this water down those "principles" that once set her on fire ?
Is she still against appeal rights now ? Or will she somehow soften
Will she be keen to try to turn the clock back now so often ?

But Pauline you're irrelevant, your legacy has spread
Hateful poison from your tongue into the public weal has bled
The pragmatists and the spin-doctors have tamed the storm you brewed
And converted it to policies that seem of milder hue

We never were One Nation, and sure as hell not now
Now divide and rule, and point the bone, with tired old sacred cows
And it's our people who have spawned her, egged her on, hid behind her
Although she is the whipping girl, just let me now remind yer

The heartless men just play her tunes, whilst she's still hangin' tough,
The emperor's robes are see-through, but who will call his bluff ?
Pauline's work is done, her phoenix needn't rise again and
Won't you tell me how this came to be, Oh someone please explain