There’s no straighter road to reclaiming Australia
than the one the Gurindji took in ’66, seeing-off the Lord Vestey;
walked-off and took-back Wattie Creek.
Only Aborigines and Torres Islanders can re-claim their continent,
while we unsettlers back them up with more than ritual acknowledgement.
Together, we can reclaim what’s lately been stolen from you and me,
and together proclaim Australia as a land for rebels and refugees.
So, let’s reclaim our privacy from the NSA,
Pine Gap from the CIA,
Darwin from the Marines, Katherine from drones and B-52s,
our foreign relations from the AUKUS misalliance
and the U.S corporate warfare state
Let’s reclaim our water being poisoned by frackers,
our farms from coal-gougers, and
our forests from the chippers.
Let’s reclaim the unpaid super-profits from mining conglomerates, and
unpaid taxes from the artful dodgers, Star, Santos, Stocklands.
Let’s seize control of the financial system from currency-raiders.
Vultures feasting on our Super Funds.
Blackstone, BlackRock and Wolf Street robber-barons.
Reclaim the people’s bank sold off by the ALP.
Reclaim our media from Mass Murdoch,
our creativity from philanthropic parasites.
We learnt from Gonski that we must reclaim Public Education;
Make the bankers pay for affordable and public housing,
public transport free from the shonkiness of ‘private-public’ partnerships.
Protect the PBS, our health and well-being, from Pharma’s exy prescriptions.
Prevention is always the best medicine.
Let’s reclaim full employment from the lie of one-hour’s work a week
and make that working-week never more than eight hours on any day.
Let’s rebuild the weapons we need to arm our struggles.
Take organised labour from the union of thieves and branch-stackers,
participatory democracy from an ‘unrepresentative swill’, our liberties for protest
from anti-terror laws dressed-up in paramilitary paraphernalia,
and our will to strike against the fraud of un-FairWork Australia.
Let’s turn ‘reclaim’ into our refrain
with independence, our first gain
towards making Common-wealth proclaim
more than a nation’s name.
Peter Curtis and Humphrey McQueen, with more than a little help from our friends.
2 September 2025