Thoughts and Prayers and Sunscreen

Lyrics

The sky turned black in November The cockatoos flew the wrong way A billion animals went quiet And the PM was on holiday He came back with a handshake nobody wanted He stood in a town that was ash and said g'day The firie pulled his hand back, which was fair enough The cameras got it, he smiled anyway The hotline was busy The airbase was locked The volunteers were exhausted The minister was shocked But we clapped for the firies We changed our profile frames We sent a thoughts and prayers To the towns without names We opened an inquiry We tabled a review We clapped for the firies It's the least we could do It's the least We could do The reef put out a statement — it was bleaching again The farmers said they'd seen it coming, forty years back A scientist said something in a senate hearing A mining lobbyist said something and that was that The kids walked out of school with signs on a Tuesday The adults said go back to school, which they did Then voted the same way they always bloody voted And wondered why the temperature never slid The taskforce was forming The target was net The deadline was thirty years out No reason to fret But we clapped for the firies We changed our profile frames We sent a thoughts and prayers To the towns without names We opened an inquiry We tabled a review We clapped for the firies It's the least we could do It's the least We could do And in the new year We opened a mine Because the economy needed it And the timing was fine And someone in Canberra Said she'll be right While the smoke rolled in On a forty-degree night And we are a good people We are a generous mob We just keep voting for the bloke Who's protecting the job Of the bloke Who's protecting the job Of the mine By autumn there was rain and we called it a comeback The footy season started and we moved on The inquiry reported eighteen months later Nobody read it — the news cycle was gone They planted some trees on a Tuesday for the cameras A million trees they said — the figure sounded nice Someone did the maths and didn't publish the maths And the forestry minister didn't ask twice But we clapped for the firies We changed our profile frames We named a park after a town That no longer remains We opened an inquiry We tabled a review We clapped for the firies ...the mine received fast-track approval in March. Environmental offset pending. She'll be right.