What's The Point Of Being...

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Cartoons
Date: 2005
Materials: Paper
Collection: Alan Moir collection no. 4
Accession number: 2005.0029.0161

Description

Political cartoon, which depicts Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sitting at a table, and saying into the telephone "WHAT'S THE POINT OF / BEING HRH (very faint) QUEEN OF THE / U.K. OF GREAT BRITAIN AND / NORTHERN IRELAND AND HER / OTHER REALMS AND TERRITORIES, / QUEEN, HEAD OF THE COMMONWEALTH, / DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, HEAD / OF ALL UK ARMED FORCES ETC ETC / IF ONE'S KIDS DON'T DO AS ONE / WANTS...?!".

About the collection

The collection consists of 176 original editorial cartoons drawn by Alan Moir. One of the cartoons were published in the Bulletin 1976 and 175 were published in the Sydney Morning Herald between 1984-2005. This collection provides cross section of work from one of Australia's leading political cartoonists, Alan Moir. Moir is the editorial cartoonist for the Sydney Morning Herald and has also worked for The Bulletin and Courier Mail. The collection documents the twists and turns of Federal politics from 1980s till 2005. The prime ministerships of Hawke, Keating and Howard all reviewed through Moir's satirical gaze. Major issues covered include the economy, international relations, the introduction of the GST, corporate collapses, the election of Mark Latham as leader of the Labor Party and the second Gulf War.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:44:30 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-17. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.