Where keys go


I’ve been drawing Dopey Bay for about 15 years now. While people say Chooka’s a bit like me, and his best girl Shazza sometimes repeats stuff my wife said the other day word for word, that is of course entirely coincidental.

This cartoon however, is completely autobiographical. Still wondering how they got there.

Political football

The Hobart Mercury 7 June 2011


We’re all excitedly awaiting the unveiling of the Hobbyroos’ (okay, we’ll probably be needing some sort of “name the team” competition) mystery sponsor is going to be.

The state government has insisted that no funds will be allocated to the North Melbourne games from the budget, so it will be interesting to see what sort of deal has been done. Football, it’s a funny old game.

Stop the cows!

The Sunday Telegraph 5 June 2011

…and you thought the Oceanic Viking was awkward. The tantalising prospect of humane slaughter would be the ultimate pull-factor for those queue-jumping illegal cow immigrants. Ban live cattle exporting to Indonesia and you just watch the bovine hordes flocking, er, herding to our shores. Stop the cows!

The indignity of bullshit

The Hobart Mercury, 4 June 2011

The main trouble with the Labor Party is that they retain the lingering impression that they’re meant to be the good guys. However, when you’re seriously contemplating sending child refugees to Malaysia (and let’s recall that Malaysia, like, hmmmm… Nauru, aren’t signatories to the UNHCR convention) it’s time to let that particular illusion go.

Punishing human beings who are seeking help does not fit into my personal understanding of top-shelf “Australian” behaviour. Perhaps it’s just me and my bleeding heart, but any “solution” which involves bullying vulnerable people isn’t good enough, especially when we all know the real reason is to appease the focus groups.

Yes, seeking asylum via leaky fishing boats is bloody dangerous, but the real solution is not to stop the boats by deterrence, but to stop people from needing the boats in the first place, and until that rather unlikely goal is achieved, you deal with the fact that the world can be a shitty place and do your best not to make it any shittier. A bit more complicated, granted, but that’s justice for you.