I remember the day I was no more than a boy
Workin' in an oxide plant at the back of North Fitzroy
Bert Gilchrist told the gaffer ‘cause Bert Gilchrist had the clout.
He said they've given Gough the bullet and the lads are walking out.
And we walked right off that job while the gaffer held the door
And watched it on the telly in a T.V. rental store.
It was one hell of a situation, the kind you just can't gauge.
There was Gough on the steps of Parliament House sayin' now maintain the rage.
In the year of the double dissolution
Drinking in the streets gave way to doubt.
Australia voted in a revolution
Then stood back and let the fat cats push it out.
There was violence in the air as I walked back home that night.
Everyone you'd meet was gettin' ready for the fight.
Saying if they're out for trouble then trouble's what they'll get.
We started out a colony, do they think we're a colony yet.
But as the weeks went by the anger turned to mild relief.
Locks were freed like magic and I watched in disbelief
To see a scam so blatant, so jacked up and full of holes
And the people in their thousands endorsed it at the polls.
Some said they had it coming, some were closer to the mark
Who spoke about conspiracy sinister and dark
But history records it and the story will be read
How we left them take democracy and stand it on its head.