Category Archives: political cartoons

DIY froth

Posted on

The Australian, 1 Febtober 2011


Sure, it would have been a lot less fuss and bother to pay for the flood cleanup without Jools’ Not So Big New Flood Levy, but what’s the point of being Prime Minister if you can’t cause a bit of fuss and bother now and then? Gives us all something to tweet about anyway.

The whole thing is just a storm in a teacup, and if the government had stuck to the teacups of the mums and dads of Australia, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but when you mess with my flat white, even if it’s just one a week (and is it just a cup, or is it a mug, and who gets the jaffa?) there’s trouble. Okay, I could just order another flat white, but caffeine withdrawal makes me irrational.

You can pry my flat white out of my cold dead hand, Gillard.

Power to the people

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The Hobart Mercury, 29 January 2011

It must be awful for a government to be forced to turn its back on its own power generating business and buy electricity from a Queensland company at much cheaper rates. Fortunately, our intrepid new premier is going to protect the simple folk of Tasmania from being forced to make such a terrible choice. Thanks Lara, and while we won’t be eating cake as it’s a little expensive to turn on the oven these days, we’ll eat a bit of batter in your honour.

Too much of a good thing

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The Australian, 27 January 2011

Not all that long ago, we had a water deficit, then we got back into water surplus in a bit of a hurry and now there’s a bloody big mess and somebody’s got to pay for the cleaning up.

Now, we could whack on a flood levy, or “great big new tax” if you’re the excitable type, though one of the chaps from the Reserve Bank Board reckons that’s a bad idea on the grounds that the economy’s already a bit damp around the ankles (might make them drop interest rates though). Otherwise, you could, as an excitable type has suggested, stop building the NBN to pay for it, though you don’t need to be on the Board of the Reserve Bank to work out that’s a pretty stupid idea.

Now I’m  not a leader of either of Australia’s major political parties, or in fact an economist, but in the spirit of The Third Way, perhaps just waiting a bit longer before Wayne’s able to leave the red pen in the pocket protector when he’s finishing up the bottom line of the budget might be a better way to go. I’m all for saving up for a rainy day, but not when the rainy day’s just happened.