Meltdown #2: Social Budget
It’s Mothers’ Day and we thank all our Mums
Not least Matriarchs who have lost loved ones
And Mums that have gone
Some didn’t live long
The toil of raising their daughters and sons
It’s our same sons and daughters in the firing line
Of the greatest existential threat of our time
But it’s almost too late
Must rapidly abate
Greenhouse gases from factories and filthy coal mines
From power stations, cars and coal boilers too
From trucks and buses and planes we once flew
From sheep and cows
And the soil we plough
Every sector has abatement to do
It’s Budget Week where red’s now the new black
Out with austerity, big spending is back
Debt and deficits
For jobs and benefits
But money can’t buy the skills that we lack
A hundred billion spending and a trillion-dollar debt
They’ve cut Labor’s grass, stole their mind set
A budget for the polls
To plug election holes
But no reform for the looming climate threat
More debt to our children for the next decade
While carbon commitments will never be made
Down the road kick the can
Indefinite travel ban
We’re hermetically sealed in a gilded cage
Our government refuses to be globally aligned
For mid-century emissions to be confined
To a net-zero target
Sweep it under the carpet
With no carbon floor, our nation’s maligned
Disability, the aged, mental health and child care
And money for women, much damage to repair
But nothing in the rules
To phase out fossil fuels
The planet’s left dying in total despair
With buckets of money the economy’s primed
While environment lives on borrowed time
A budget pitfall
A wasted windfall
To build back better with the climate in mind
So what does being Aussie really mean
Is it a right to return from wherever you’ve been
When India flights grounded
We were left astounded
Jail for fleeing COVID was just obscene
I got the AstraZeneca jab, avoided blood clots
While others had a fever, flushing cold and hot
But the vaccine rollout
Is more of a stroll out
We won’t be safe until we vaccinate the lot
While our budget is funded by rising iron ore
There’s tension in our region that we cannot ignore
It’s our responsibility
To avert hostility
Now’s not the time for beating drums of war
Budget for faster vaccination and better quarantine
To let us leave our country for families to convene
Invest in environment
Our children’s entitlement
Budget for vital urgency … as was COVID-19
Kevin Holmes • 13th May 2021
