Tuesday 30 September 2014

Out of the Frying pan...?



Refugees voluntarily accepting asylum anywhere but Australia tells us something...  doesn't it?

Monday 29 September 2014

Taxing matters.



In fact, they are matters with which normal punters should acqauint themselves. Why?

See today's breaking news. A survey has found that many of the biggest Australian companies hardly pay any taxation in this country at all. Presumably, taxation law is so lax that these 'bludgers' have a myriad of loopholes through which they can avoid paying their fair share of the tax burden in the country which provides them with their main marketing opportunities.

I wonder which list of Mr. Hockey's 'Lifters and Leaners' they appear on?

Sunday 28 September 2014

Mute Swan... or just switched off?



What a boil-over? Still, I feel sad for son Wes and his daughters who were attending their first-ever AFL Grand Final. He became a Swans supporter when posted to Sydney for a +/- 10 year work stint during the mid-nineties. The girls were both born there, so they have a legitimate excuse for the allegiance.

It's only a game folks... played at the highest level by largely very old kids! Get over it.

Saturday 27 September 2014

Cranking-up the Way-way back machine...



It was originally a week-end habit of this blog to feature older archival 'stuff' dragged back into the light from dusty drawers and folders as a change of pace from non-stop current affairs lampooning. I've let that slip a bit lately... so, let's go right back almost to the beginning of my scribbling career to see what evolved from my introduction to a 'mapping' pen and india ink.

This piece was done sometime towards the end of WW2 when I was perhaps 7 or 8 and living in the central Gippsland town of Morwell, where my dad was one of the two local police members. It was published in the kids section of the now long-defunct Melbourne Argus. The only evidence I now have is a battered c.1980s photocopy from the then badly age-browned and tattered remnant torn out of the original newspaper by my Mum. Poignantly, the original had a pencilled comment in my late Mum's hand-writing ... 'Rob got 5/- for this.'

Five bob was quite a 'princely' sum for a kid under 10 in those days. Woo-hoo! My professional cartooning career was up and away!

How's the weather up there?



If you ignore a thing for long enough... will it simply fade away? It seems our fearless leader is of that opinion.

Must try it on my attitude to politicians!

Friday 26 September 2014

Smoke gets in your eyes?



Oh dear! 'Smokin' Joe and friend (see... I'm finally picking-up the jargon of fB) mislaid an idle $30. billion whilst doing their pre-budget sums earlier in the year.

Write this a hundred times on the black-board-  Smoking befuddles the mind!


Thursday 25 September 2014

She'll be 'Apples'?



Reports yesterday of new Apple i Phones becoming bent just by being carried in owner's pockets?

What next?!

Wednesday 24 September 2014

And, the 'CHARLIE' goes to...




There was a time many, many moons ago when I lived and breathed Aussie Rules football. I hated the immediate aftermath of the (then) VFL grand final each year and the pseudo-void created by the removal of goal and behind posts from local sports ovals, ushering in yet another long, hot summer. Strangely, I was probably better at playing cricket than footy... it just didn't excite the same passion in me.

As a player, I pushed the footy-playing envelope to the extent of going around with the famous Collingwood club for several years in their third XVIII (captain in 1954) and a few games with both the 'Pies' and Carlton VFL seconds before succumbing to a combo of a bad ankle injury and bloody National service. Later, marriage and work caused me to drift away from my footy fixation to the extent that I now hardly ever take the slightest interest in AFL doings in general... and the annual Brownlow medal count gala in particular. Thus, announcement of this year's winner of the medal (evidently now nick-named the 'CHARLIE' after Charles Brownlow whom the 'best and fairest' player award commemorates) went to a West Coast Eagles player who apparently was not on the radar among pundit favorites(?)  I'd certainly never heard of him!

Nonetheless... congratulations to Matthew Priddis.


Tuesday 23 September 2014

Lie of the land?



After all these years. little Johnny decides to make a half-baked admission that he was wrong and 'embarrassed' by misleading the nation on 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' being the trigger for the invasion of Iraq!

The question which remains unanswered is... If he wasn't lying then, is he lying now?!

Monday 22 September 2014

Sunday 21 September 2014

Saturday 20 September 2014

U.K. slowly unravelling?



A bullet dodged... but, in a big (by UK standards) voting turn-out, the fact that 45% of constituents DIDN'T want Scotland to remain in the union, has to be a worry for rusted-on Brits. in general and the Westminster set in particular.

Friday 19 September 2014

Team Australia?



Despite the oft-used adage about the spelling of 'team'... it seems 'Team AustralIa' breaks the mould?

The logo 'iTa' springs to mind, especially if the figment of Abbott's imagination adopts an online identity. 

Thursday 18 September 2014

Wednesday 17 September 2014

The big QUESTION is...



... will an 'air supremacy alone' strategy of 'willing' coalition nations be enough to permanently blunt the expansion of I.S.I.L. (AKA I.S.I.S., I.S., Islamic State, Cult of Evil. etc.) forces in Iraq and Syria?

Or, will the scourge simply go under-ground requiring a reversion to a good old nineteenth century 'boots on the ground' approach?

Deja Vu anyone?.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Ocean of Garbage?



Warning! What goes around, comes around kinda epitomizes Ocean current oscillation.

Monday 15 September 2014

Pokie waifs?



If I've heard of a sillier idea in recent times... I can't bring it readily to mind. Child-care provided by Licensed Clubs? The motive for such a scheme is much easier to imagine. Having the minds of patrons able to focus on the job in hand without the diversion created by pesky routine responsibilities, is likely to promote enjoyment for all concerned?

Saturday 13 September 2014

Egged on?



Is Minister Morrison suffering for a failure to observe the legalities attached to his line of work... or just being unable to control the hubris generated by finding himself in a position of extraordinary power over the fate and/or well-being of departmental 'clientele'?

Whatever... you cross the line, you pay the fine, so to speak. If that means being (figuratively) 'pelted with rotten eggs'... so be it!

Friday 12 September 2014

Tropical lifestyle?



The government's intention to re-introduce Temporary Protection Visas as an excuse to somersault on their beloved off-shore refugee detention program, may come as a shock to the systems of some poor devils who have been 'detained' in tropical climes for no valid reason* for up to 2 years by successive Australian administrations?

*see recent associated declaration by the High Court on the ILLEGAL treatment of unprocessed asylum seekers.

Thursday 11 September 2014

Biting off more than...?



With a late afternoon dental appointment scheduled for today, I did the above cartoon yesterday in anticipation of potential disruption to normal cartooning routines.

Just as well. I was out on a planned shopping excursion for most of yesterday afternoon, while the dentist was desperately trying to seek my agreement to having today's appointment brought forward to
10 a.m.

(No actual dentists or patients were harmed in the rushed production of this work.)

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Coincidence?



Every now and then, news events seem to align with each other in an almost weird fashion. Last night I  completed today's cartoon in anticipation of scheduled appointments which might have interrupted my normal daily creative routine. I chose to comment on the apparently imminent announcement of government intent to source off-shore building of Australia's new submarine fleet. If true, it means manufacture of the boats in South Australia will be 'lost with all hands' forever!

Spookily, the 7am ABC radio news tells me that a renewed search is about to be launched to try locating the wreckage of AE1, Australia's very first submarine mysteriously lost with all hands off Rabaul at about 0700hrs on September 14, 1914... almost a century ago.

It was sourced off-shore (UK), because Australia had no ship-building industry at the on-set of WW1!

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Monday 8 September 2014

Archival stuff



Early in 2010, former MP Pauline Hanson announced she was selling up her interests in Australia to facilitate emigration to Great Britain. The statement was reported widely by both local and UK media.

At the time, I scribbled a single comic strip in anticipation of a possible disappointing welcome awaiting the lady in the 'Old Dart'.

Evidently, the move didn't happen... but, as I can't recall the piece ever being published previously, an airing here and now wouldn't hurt. The thing was originally pen on paper in B&W. I've added colour digitally for this outing.

Sunday 7 September 2014

Saturday 6 September 2014

Vlad the Despoiler?



Will Putin play ball with the cease-fire agreement in the Ukraine conflict?

If so, why?

Friday 5 September 2014

Ice Bucketing.



Clive ducks what he apparently considered to be an ice bucket ambush after a couple of senate colleagues volunteered for the ordeal (and apparently enjoyed the experience immensely?)

Thursday 4 September 2014

Cold comfort?


Gawd... it HAS been cold in Victoria lately!

Mind you, not as cold, or as long as some of the unfortunate victims of ICE (the social drug) will be!

Wednesday 3 September 2014

The woes of Iraq...



... almost all of which can be traced back directly to the basically Western carve-up of the Middle East in the wake of WW1. The stupidly enforced hotch-potch of peoples enclosed within un-natural and incompatible borders made most of the ethnic troubles of the ensuing century absolutely predictable.

Once again...the sins of the fathers...




Tuesday 2 September 2014

On edge?



If, when proven I.S.I.S. 'fighters' try returning to Australia... I imagine they wont be carrying a prominent indication of what they have been up to during their international sojourn. Probably not even genuine documentary evidence of who they are (or were)?

However, in cartoons you can getaway with almost anything(?)

Monday 1 September 2014

Shunted permanently?



According to today's media, local train manufacturers have been 'shunted' by the Victorian government  from the tendering process for supply of 30 new trains in Victoria. A regional plant in Bendigo may be forced to shut down with current orders drying up rapidly.

Government propaganda about support for local manufacturing is just that... propaganda! Missing in action when the chips are down.