On Boat People

Omar and his family went to sea

In a beautiful pea green boat.

They paid their fare to a man, it is said,

Who promised them it would float.

They all looked up at the stars above

And sang to a small sitar,

“Oh Australia! Oh Australia!

What a beautiful country you are,

What a beautiful country you are.”

When their boat ran afoul in the ocean vast

They radioed their distress,

Along came the Navy and delivered them

To a rather strange address.

They were locked away for a year and a day

In the land where the Abbott tree grows,

Until in a wood a Gillard stood

With bright red hair and a nose,

With bright red hair and a nose.

“I’m sending you to Malaysia,” she said,

“Because you jumped the queue.”

But the Abbott said, “No, that’s not fair,

I’ll send them to Nauru.”

A committee was called to sort it out

And it talked from night till noon,

While hand in hand on the edge of the sand

We danced by the light of the moon,

We danced by the light of the…