David Pope and the cartoons that defined 2016
16 ImagesFrom David Bowie's death to the rise of Donald Trump and whatever you call what Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull spent the year doing, here's how Fairfax Media cartoonist David Pope captured some of the key events and issues of 2016.
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2016: A rough plan ... Says cartoonist David Pope: "It's always good to start the new year with a plan. You can then go back to it at the end of the year and see how you fared. I can't help feeling we probably ended up shoving more back under there than we managed to rake out." Photo: David Pope
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"Politicians spend a lot of time managing their image to appear in control of things, so I draw a lot of things that portray the contingency and chaos of politics. 'Methodical plans' announced to dress up policies and compromises cooked up on the fly."
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"Cartoons about the abuse of power always run the risk of inadvertently reinforcing the powerlessness of victims and the power of the abuser. So it was good to draw these irrepressible survivors of institutional sexual abuse, as they picked each other up on the road from Ballarat to Rome, to bear witness to testimony from Australian cardinal George Pell, and to seek justice." Photo: David Pope
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Safe schools: "The Prime Minister's relationship with the conservative right wing of his party is complicated. Pressure from peers can mean burying your true feelings and hiding who you really are. So it's good to provide a safe space in a cartoon where a Prime Minister can talk honestly about how bullying works."
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The long march: Another in the Pope series depicting Tony Abbott as the permanent opposition leader. "From his guerilla base somewhere in the hills around Canberra, he'll still be holding out in those hills, years after the war is over".
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The Life of Brian: "Accepting what the science is consistently telling us about our planet's climate and humanity's impact is very difficult. There will be a lot of crying and tantrums on the way to taking prudent action to mitigate humanity's impact on the climate, as visiting professor of physics Brian Cox discovered in 2016 when he met One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts."
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Life on Mars: "David Bowie died, and while I did not have that personal connection to his art and music that many clearly felt, there was no disputing his influence on popular artistic culture. This song was my favourite. Played now at the end of the year, perhaps the melancholy which accompanied it at the start of they year will give way to more of its tragic defiant optimism."
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The actor Alan Rickman was another celebrity whose death in 2016 cartoonist David Pope worked into his political commentary.
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Singer Leonard Cohen's death in 2016 made for this poignant tribute.
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Malcolm Turnbull's unconvincing 2016 election win provided plenty of opportunities for satire for Pope. And who's that rushing towards the flaming wreckage with some fuel? Could that be Senator Cory Bernardi?
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The Senate shenanigans following 2016's double dissolution election was a gift for cartoonists. For the PM, not so much.
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The return of Pauline Hanson to the national political arena also sparked controversy.Photo: David Pope
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In March 2016, with a defiant Cardinal George Pell in the news and Pope Francis taking aim at so-called Christians seeking to build walls instead of bridges, cartoonist David Pope brought together two "Men of destiny".Photo: David Pope
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One of David Pope's Donald Trump cartoons during the 2016 presidential campaign.
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Pope's editorial cartoon of July 23, 2016, depicted the consequences for freedom in Turkey of the failed military coup.
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This cartoon by David Pope published on the front page of the Turkish national daily paper Cumhuriyet comments on the Turkish regime's efforts to censor and punish media coverage critical of the government.Photo: David Pope