With the federal budget imminent, it is perhaps appropriate to revisit this oldie.

DYING TREASURER
(John Dengate/Tune: Dying stockman)

A federal treasurer lay dying
His budget supporting his head
The cabinet stood plausibly lying
As he raised on his elbow and said

Chorus
Wrap me up in my jiggery-pokery
Wrap me round in my legerdemain
Bury me deep in the rhetoric
Right next to the monetary drain

There's booze in the cut-glass decanter
Place the numbers all in a row
And toast more and more unemployment
May the total continue to grow

Chorus

Cut down the consumer price index
Put wages and salaries on ice
Lock up one or two union leaders
To help me attain paradise

Chorus

Oh, had I the flight of a bronze-wing
Instead of a blind silver-tail
I'd fly in the face of all reason
And I'd write my last budget in braille

Chorus or alternative last stanza

Oh, had I the flight of an emu
I'd desperately run round and round
And try to soar into the sunset
And never get up off the ground

From John Dengate's 1982 publication 'My Shout'.

--Stewie.