What the rich want us to hear about the climate threat is a little different to what they tell each other.
(The Canberra Times, 16 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)
Monthly Archives: January 2017
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.
(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.
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.
Confused and concerned about your Centrelink debt notice? Visit Not My Debt.
(The Canberra Times, 11 & 12 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)
Centrelink
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce (true!) is the latest government minister to defend Centrelink’s troubled $4.5 billion debt recovery mission, following the Social Security Minister’s assurance that it was all working “incredibly well”.
The Minister for Health has also been digging in on the issue of entitlements.
(The Canberra Times, 7 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)
I, Government
Centrelink’s error-prone automated compliance system is causing a lot of grief. It feels a lot like the census debacle – make cuts, but reassure everyone that IT will bridge the service gap.
The dalek-shaped cyborg here is supposed to have a passing resemblance to the Minister for Human Services, Alan Tudge (Dickens himself could not have come up with a better name!). But given that no-one knows what he looks like, and given the theme, it seemed more important to capture the likeness of something mechanical than something human.
(The Canberra Times, 3 January 2017 | Gallery of most recent cartoons)