Orwell redux: 'Collect it all'

June 6, 2019
Issue 

Here’s to the NSA and to ASD
We learned it before and learned for free
They know all about you and me.
Big Brother is watching

Are you familiar with the NSA?
“Collect it all” is what they always pray,*
Your phone calls, your emails, every day.
Big Brother collects it all

If you emailed your friend to criticise
The government’s latest policy lies
And it’s quoted in court, don’t feel surprise.
Big Brother was listening

If your union faction fight is all the go
Amid months of strife on budgets or so,
Don’t be shocked if NSA’s in the know.
Big Brother is watching

You’re doing nothing wrong yourself, I’ll bet,
You have no secrets in your cabinet,
You are the straightest citizen I’ve met,
But Big Brother is snooping

But as a teenager you were texting,
Seeking this thing or the next thing
Then you tried new-fangled sexting
But Big Brother was ogling

You may well bleat about civil rights
But they have vanished out of sight
Your privacy’s in a terrible plight
Big Brother is winning

But the NSA’s American, yes?
Why should we feel the slightest distress?
It can’t happen in Australia, I guess.
Here, Big Brother’s benign?

Well, the latest fun is a new report
That they’re wanting to take to court
A journalist who can’t be bought
Big Brother is angry

She found a revealing scoop that’s great:
The national security state
Is planning ASD powers to inflate.
Big Brother’s expanding!

(One aspect where we are amused:
It’s a Newscorp journalist being abused
The air’s with indignation suffused
But Big Brother’s Murdoch’s buddy!)

But why should we care about this flurry?
Why all this frantic fuss and hurry?
Peter Dutton’s in charge, so not to worry,
Big Brother loves us

For it’s only baddies he will smother
Or anyone who looks like The Other
Or terrorists (maybe Sudanese rather)
So we must all love Big Brother

*One of Edward Snowden's revelations.

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