FREEDOM OF CONTRACT!

[The 1890's version of Workchoices]

Oh! Freedom is a glorious thing,

And so the squatter say;

But they seldom practice what they preach

It's all the other way.

They're trying hard to crush us now

By every move and act;

But our cry is “No surrender” to

Their “Freedom of Contract.”

“Twas little justice that we got

In days that now are past,

With wages coming down each year

We knew things could not last,

The working men who grumbled then,

How quickly they got sacked

By the self-same men who talk to-day

Of “Freedom of Contact.”

Some squatters for a week's hard graft.

Would pay you fifteen bob,

And then you'd have to cringe and crawl

To hang long in your job.

I am talking from experience.

I can prove it as a fact.

No wonder that I don't take stock

In “Freedom of Contract.”

Then, brothers, in our noble Cause

Stand firm and act as men.

Be cool and still determined,

And we are bound to win.

Although the squatters' Government

The squatters' game has backed,

Our cry still “No surrender” to

Their “Freedom of Contract.”

                                                                        

                                                                     Owen Maguire, Hughenden.

Brisbane April 4, 1891