Another poem from Inside Black Australia (1988) edited by Kevin Gilbert.  This by W. Les Russell, in the voice of a former Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen

God Gave Us Trees to Cut Down

My Goodness;
if I was to have a say in the way things should be done in Victoria:
like we run them and have them here in Queensland,
then by crikey;
those forests – rain forests and what they have they – in Gippsland there;
and let me tell you,
we have been down that road with conservationists too:
and, by golly, we gave them what for.

And why should they cut down their trees?
what use are they? well I’ll tell you:
the Japanese – I know they’re a funny mob of people –
but they make paper out of trees, see,
and we all need paper.
You know this – what a stupid question to ask.
What would you do without paper and cardboard and –
goodness, I ask you.
Of course we must cut down trees;
golly, what did God give them to us for?

And look at the other States, and all of them and what have you;
they have taken a leaf out of our Queensland way of doing things.
Just look at Mr Grey in Tasmania; he cuts down many trees,
now; unfortunately they don’t seem to have the courage
to stand up to the Federal Government and sit firmly on their position
– but let me tell you, they cut down many trees in Tasmania.
And in Western Australia
– Just look at them – well –
they cut down their Jarra, and all their other sorts there.
And in New South Wales previous governments,
and even the present government sells their trees to the Japanese,

and my goodness, so they should.
Don’t worry about South Australia, they don’t have any trees.
Unfortunately the Northern Territory has been given to the Aboriginals,
and we all know they worship trees and sticks and plants and things
and what have you
and all sorts of things so we all know where that place is going;
and what a pity:
minerals and the casino and Ayers Rock
– as they now call it: Uluru; and what a shame – don’t you think it a shame?
And you see? they worship rocks too.  All the minerals will go down the drain.

But here in Queensland we don’t let the Federal Government
Down there in Canberra tell us what to do
– and why should we?
If they come up here we soon give them short shrift and short change.
We send them running back down south with their tails between their legs
and their hats behind their backs like little schoolboys.
That’s the way to do it – you’ve got to show them who’s boss.
And so I would tell Mr Cain* not to worry about those conservationists,
just run right over them:
cut right through the lot of them as if they weren’t there.
Golly, that’s the way we do it in Queensland.

My goodness, you should know
God gave us those rain forests to cut down . . . .

(*Mr Cain, the then premier of Victoria.)