Lawson on the duty of Australians

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On election night, when he made the customary TV appearance on being re-elected, South Australian Premier Malinauskas chose to read lines from Henry Lawson’s poem The duty of Australians, written shortly after Federation:

'Tis the duty of Australians, in the bush and in the town,

To forever praise their country, but to run no other down;

When a man or nation visits, in the hey-day of its pride,

'Tis the duty of Australians to be kind but dignified.

'Tis our duty to the stranger – landed maybe but an hour –

To give all the information and assistance in our power.

To give audience to the new chum and to let the old chum wait,

Lest his memory be embittered by his first day in the State.

'Tis our duty, when he's foreign, and his English very young,

To find out and take him somewhere where he'll hear his native tongue.

To give him our last spare moment, and our pleasure to defer –

He'll be father of Australians, as our foreign fathers were!

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