The ballad of exportise 2003: modern day poet Rupert McCall, who was this year's host at the gala Australian Export Awards ceremony held in Sydney, penned the work below as a tribute to Australia's exporters, McCall read the poem during the Awards ceremony and was met with rapturous applause

Business Asia, Dec, 2003

   If I stood up here and bayed with brave esteem
   To all the people gathered--"Friends, I have a dream!
   That man should not be rated by the colour of his skin
   But the content of his character"--Let the night begin!
   If I told you that the Dragons were the best team in the land
   In a chorus that inspired me to Wanna Hold Your Hand
   If I said that Gatum Gatum won the big race in a romp!
   As I hung five on the podium and followed with the stomp!
   It's a roller coaster ride!
   But the mood would soon subside ...
   If I had to tell you somberly, my stomach in a knot
   That in America this very day, JFK was shot
   If Vietnam was brewing and the protest groups were waiting
   If Tom Jones was the movie the Academy was rating
   If Margaret Court served Wimbledon a title-winning ace!
   Whilst another first for women had occurred in outer space
   If I stood up here and told you that this nation's population
   Was eleven million sunburnt souls with true blue aspirations!

   And I think you know the answer but I'll tell you where you'd be?
   You'd be at the Australian Export Awards--1963
   Where a bowling ball called Henselite was judged the winning team
   And Martin Luther didn't show but still we had a dream
   That the colour and the content of Australian trade frontiers
   Would prosper through the cavalcade of forty blazing years

   And to think we came out riding on the backbone of a sheep!
   Mining soon combining as we took a quantum leap
   From the breast of Mother England to the USA and Asia
   T'was flower power hour in a combie-filled Fantasia!
   As Gough was sacked and Skylab cracked--our export market thrived
   The boom and crash of eighties cash was tackled and survived
   Australia II--the Boxing Roo--the chase for Skase--the global zoo
   We hailed the new economy--in dot com dreams, our exports grew
   Another opportunity--another bumpy ride
   On Berlin's wall, we cheered the fall--with Princess Di, we cried
   An Olympic torch and Freeman's scorch bought all
   our neighbours nearer
   And now, a new Millennium ignites a brand new era

   The world of forty years ago might sometimes seems estranged
   But at the heart and soul of all things decent,
   nothing much has changed
   Through turbulence, through terror, through technology, through time
   Through recession, free expression, through politics, through rhyme
   From all corners of the industry in all its shapes and sizes
   It's not so much the story but the moral it comprises
   When that stirring cloth of Southern Cross is humbly unfurled
   And we take a little piece of it and spread it 'round the world
   The wealth that you contribute is a feather in your cap
   But more than that, your life's work is what puts us on the map
   And you should be proud of this
   It's a feat too often missed
   Yes we tend to worship singers, actors, sporting inspirations
   But to offer you the same respect bears all the same foundations
   You who eye tomorrow off with fresh determinations
   Tonight we look your way ... and simply say--congratulations