The Arse End Of The Earth

Evans: Another morning in the PMC¹PMC = Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
We’ve got the latest on the CAD²CAD = Current Account Deficit
It’s only four percent of GDP³GDP = Gross Domestic Product
But it’s causing little tremors at the NAB⁴NAB = National Australia Bank

You want your funding for the AME?⁵AME = Australian Multimedia Enterprise
The AME was a particular favourite of Keating’s, but was forever being sidelined in favour of more urgent projects. The internet revolution that was just starting in Keating’s years as PM went on to leave Australia somewhat behind in the years that followed.
We’ll have to sneak it past the ERC⁶ERC = Expenditure Review Committee
And the PMO⁷PMO = Prime Minister’s Office observers of the GNE⁸GNE = Gross National Expenditure are nervous
It’s another day of service in the ALP⁹ALP = Australian Labor Party. The party led by Keating.

Keating: My land is burning with bureaucracy, too scared to contemplate its worth
Inert and dreaming of democracy
Too struck by sun
To get things done
At the arse end of the Earth¹⁰In his memoir, published in 1994 while Keating was still PM, Bob Hawke alleged that Keating referred to Australia as The Arse End of the World and claimed that if he were not made leader he’d be quit of it soon – which was widely seen as ‘proof’ of Keating’s lack of patriotism. Whether or not Keating said this, it does sound like his idiom.

Evans: Another morning in the monarchy
We’ve got the model from the RAC¹¹RAC = Republican Advisory Committee. The group organised by Keating to evaluate what an Australian republic might look like.
About as minimal as it can be
But you might have blown your chances for an OBE¹²OBE = Order of the British Empire, a well-known decoration often bestowed on its more loyal servants by the Crown.

They’re gonna try to pull the train off track
They’re lining up to fly the Union Jack¹³The Union Jack is the official flag of the United Kingdom. Keating’s conservative opponents were quick to complain about his perceived disrespect toward the Queen, provoking Keating’s sarcastic response:
“I should never have made that remark about independence to the Queen of this continent. I should have had more respect. How dare I even reflect modestly on the British bootstraps stuff?”
With the tyranny of distance¹⁴‘Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia’s History’ is the title of an influential book on Australian history written by Geoffrey Blainey. Its central thesis was the history of Australia was largely shaped by how very far away it was from Europe, especially Britain.
The path of least resistance
And you gave the Queen assistance when you goosed her back¹⁵During a Royal visit to Australia, Keating allegedly touched the Queen’s back – an incident which conservative elements of the media and politics in both the UK and Australia reacted to as if he had defiled some sacred item.

Keating: We have one golden opportunity to see our brand new flag unfurled¹⁶Keating in Parliament on 28/4/92:
I am proud of Australia. It is not Britain. We are not British. We are Australians. That is the point. Honourable members opposite do not understand that this is the Australian nation; this is not the British nation. They can never grasp it. They could not grasp it in the Second World War. Menzies, their founder, tried to separate and distinguish Britain’s interests from those of Australia and, in the end, could not. Curtin, free of any pangs of loyalty to Britain, brought the troops home. This the Liberal Party’s founder called a blunder. To bring our troops back from the Middle East to defend our continent from a Japanese invasion, Menzies called a blunder…
At some stage when Australia has a flag of its own, unambiguously Australian, people will look back on these debates in Hansard and they will giggle at the remarks of the honourable member for Bennelong (Howard) and the remarks of the Leader of the Opposition (Hewson), just as today we giggle at the ones made in 1943. The fact is that those opposite do not comprehend the notion of nationhood; they do not advance our nationhood; they have never understood it; they have always thought it subordinate and derivative. It is not, and it never will be while ever the flag of Labor flies in this country.
To rise with shining eyes in unity
It’s hard to stand
With heads in sand
At the arse end of the world

Keating / Evans: We can move this world
We can change this place
Shifting inch by inch¹⁷Keating’s early experiences in Parliament and observations of the bureaucracy left him with the sense that incrementalism was the favoured way to make changes by most of his predecessors. As the song suggests, it was not a method he himself favoured – he once commented that “The great curse of modern political life is incrementalism.”
At a glacial pace
Take it step by step
Build it brick by brick
Important innovations
And delicate equations
I’m running out of patience, can we make this quick?
Quick, quick, quick, quick…

Evans: Another morning in the ACT¹⁸ACT = Australian Captial Territory, the area of Australia where Canberra, the national capital, is located.
Remind Australia that we’re young and free¹⁹The first two lines of Australia’s national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, are: ‘Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free’.
But every channel seems to disagree
With the possible exception of the ABC²⁰ABC = Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a government funded channel which has tended over the years to be one of the harshest critics of sitting governments in the Australian media. The three notes that are played after this line are a take on a longtime station identity theme used by the ABC.

We’re getting hammered by the tabloid press
We must be pissing Rupert off, I guess²¹Rupert is Rupert Murdoch; basically Satan if Satan owned numerous conservative media outlets in Australia, the UK and the US including Fox News, and had fewer scuples.
‘Cos they’re calling us elitist and the polling is defeatist
So we hope that every street is watching SBS – oh yes! – oh yes!²²SBS = Special Broadcasting Service, a government-funded channel that specialises in programming aimed at non-English speakers. It was originally a Hawke-era initiative, but also a notable favourite of Keating, who presided over a considerable expansion of its services during his years as PM.

Keating: We hear the siren song of destiny, a call to rapturous rebirth²³In his Australia Day 1992 speech, Keating stated his belief that “we must re-make Australia”.
Keating: We dare to recognise our history²⁴On ANZAC Day 1992, Keating visited the site of the Kokoda Memorial in Papue New Guinea. He made a speech in which he called for a re-evaluation of the comparative importance of Gallipolli and Kokoda to the nation, its history and its sense of self.
On December 10 of the same year, he made his famous Redfern speech about race relations in Australia – for more information about that, see the song of the same name.
The future’s bright
For black and white
At the arse end of the Earth
Keating / Evans: What better place to make your base than the arse – end – of – the – Earth?

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