Ozymandias in Oz

SS: What is the significance of this?

EB: It may hold the key to the demise of the Canberra civilisation. Australia's leaders focused on the economy, which is only right. As Mae West said, "I've been rich and I've been poor and, believe me baby, rich is better."

But a sound economy is not an end in itself. It is a tool that can be used to help a nation reach its social goals. However, first a nation must actually have social goals. Unfortunately, Australia had become a nation of means without ends. In the words of a political leader not forgotten, Robert Kennedy, "gross national product does not include the beauty of our poetry or the intelligence of our public debate; measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

The Russians say that the poet always outlives the tsar. How right they are. Shelley lives on while in Canberra, the lone and level sands stretch far away.