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This song was the result of a challenge by Verona Burgess, of the
Canberra Times, to write a song about the sacking of Paul Barratt
as Secretary of the Department of Defence. I wrote the first
verse, Frankie Seymour took over and finished it.
Some talk of Edmund Barton
And some of Bob Menzies,
Of Fraser, Gough and Gorton
And such great names as these;
But of all the world’s brave heroes
There’s none that was not led
With a tow row row row ro-ow row
By a Departmental Head.
Where once we guided from below,
Now they rule with thuggish fear.
“Don’t tell us what we need to know,
Just what we want to hear!”
And if we do our jobs aright
They’ll drop us like a coal,
With a tow row row row ro-ow row,
They think they own your soul.
But when their right to sack us
Is challenged in the court,
We know our staff will back us
Without a second thought;
For though they may not love us
Instinctively they fear
With a tow row row row ro-ow row
A politicised career.
Copyright © Frankie Seymour and D.W. Walker, 1999