Australian Politician's Musical Address To Parliament Spreads Holiday Cheer – News18

An Australian politician has the fancy of internet users for his stellar singing skills and improvised lyrics on a classic song. David Templeman, a Labor Party politician and the Minister for Culture and the Arts, has a ritual of addressing the parliament around Christmas with a song that details major events of the year. He often puts new lyrics to popular songs. In 2018, the minister reworked Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence as he poked fun at his colleagues and highlighted the year’s important happenings. Recently, an Instagram account named Austracks reshared a portion of Templeman’s 2018 song address and it gathered over one lakh likes.

In his song-speech, Templeman croons, “Hello speaker, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again. It’s a story of some downs and ups, of the Eagles and their Premiership Cup. Of a year that finished with a share of a GST for our treasury. That’s been a year in the parliament; the legislation’s program grand, plastic bags have now been banned. We have now got sewerage bollards out the front, looking like an opposition stunt. Members keep giving speeches that no one understands, some good some bad. That’s been a year in the parliament.”

Commenting on it, an Instagram user wrote, “Gotta admit that is a good laugh, whatever side your political spectrum is.” Some people appreciated Templeman for using a lively way to make a point and said, “A very good way to get the point across, very tactical!!” Another wrote, “He might be a useless MP but he can hold a note and if all else fails he can always pass a cap round.”

As per The West Australian, this year Templeman sang a reworked version of Bee Gees’ “You Don’t Know What It’s Like”. As per usual he recalled the year. Commenting on Transport Minister Rita Saffioti’s $2 billion rail project, he sang, “We’re going to Ellenbrook today. But there will be no more traffic pain because now we’re building a train; Rita’s building them a train.”

He poked fun at not being able to get tickets for the Coldplay concert and sang, “But there’s no way that I’ll get tickets to Coldplay. I’m on my phone in the queue, I’m still in the queue, I’m still in the queue…”

Templeman had trained as a drama specialist for primary schools, when he worked as a teacher before becoming a politician.