All aboard the Omnibus

The government is making hard work of getting its childcare package through Parliament, having stuffed it into an Omnishambles Omnibus Bill that contains various “zombie measures” from the 2014 Federal Budget that the government refuses to let die.

Cartoon: the Omnibus childcare/welfare cuts Bill

Blackmailing the Senate to get onboard, with threats to NDIS funding, seems to have backfired.

Cartoon: the Australian Political Football League

(The Canberra Times, 11 and 16 February 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)

Stick a fork in the myth of Moderate Mal, it’s done

Cartoon: PM blames failure of National Electricity Market on renewable energy

The government is trying to blame failures in the National Electricity Market on renewable energy. Ross Gittins sees the sleight of hand; Richard Denniss deploys a nice metaphor using prawns to completely demolish the stage.

Inside Parliament, ministers brandished a lump of coal; outside, Professor Clive Hamilton resigned from the Climate Change Authority. It is “crystal clear that the Government has no interest in sensible climate change policy”:

Letter: Clive Hamilton resigns from the Climate Change Authority

Cartoon: political climate change affecting the Liberal Party

(The Canberra Times, 11 and 7 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)

The US ship of state

Jack Waterford reflects on Obama’s farewell speech in today’s Canberra Times: “[E}ven after the appropriate discounts, is it not thrilling to sometimes hear a politician appeal to the better parts of our nature? To optimism and to nobility?”

How to sum up the Obama era in one picture? Ha, obviously, you can’t. Contrary to the cliché, a good thousand words runs rings around any picture, and in this case I’ll take 5,770 from Gary Younge.

Cartoon: the ship of state (the end of the Obama era)

(The Canberra Times, 14 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)

Politicians entitlements

The Big Chopper deployed this week to douse the Sussan Ley travel expenses spot fire. And yet somehow it continues to burn.

Cartoon: Bronwyn Bishop blames socialists for media scrutiny of politicians entitlements

Meanwhile, Centrelink’s fraught robo-debt-recovery campaign has now sent out 270,000 letters. Because those trips by Ministers to the AFL Grand Final and the Portsea Polo aren’t going to pay for themselves.

Cartoon: if politicians entitlements were pursued in the same way as Centrelink debts

Confused and concerned about your Centrelink debt notice? Visit Not My Debt.

(The Canberra Times, 11 & 12 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)