Happy Christmas! At 8.354 cents per litre !!

© Carol Reffold

It was in December 2003 – that week a struggling, bull-dozing mate of mine in Queensland, got a letter from the Queensland Fuel Subsidy Scheme demanding he pay 8.354 cents a litre back to them, for all the diesel he has bought and been rebated on, since 1st July 2000!

I have a mate. He clears the land.
He’s done it all his life.
He loves the land. He knows it well.
And now he’s in deep strife!

He snigs the logs and dries up bogs
And leaves land looking good
Maintains his gear, from year to year
And does the things he should.

He contour ploughs, for hour on hours
So water can be spared
To help his mates, he keeps down rates
And off times are all shared.

But creeps in town all take him down
They change the rules each day
They legislate, oh how I hate
The way they make him pay.

The latest trick, it makes me sick,
Is change those diesel rates,
From what they were, to what they are
And still protect their mates!

The average man, who’s on his land
Has been bled to his soul
By Government, with no intent
Of helping him stay whole.

“A cartage cost” – ( the red tape’s lost ) -
was what he’d thought he’d paid.
But this big bill has made him ill
And he can’t make the grade.

So times are tough, he’s had enough
The Season to be jolly?
It’s Ho! Ho! Ho! – which way to go?
Let’s just say “Liberal’s Folly”

 

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