Reproduction cartoon titled 'Costello's ghost'

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Type
Political cartoons
Date
14 June 2009
Materials
Ink, Paper
Collection
Behind the Lines 2009 collection
Accession number
MU00016.013

Description

A colour cartoon reproduction on paper featuring Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull dressed as a king with the ghost of Peter Costello surrounding him. Turnbull is holding a sword and wearing a pink cape and a crown. The artist's signature 'Matt Davidson' is written in the right bottom corner.

About the collection

The 'Behind the Lines 2009' collection consists of 29 political cartoons collected for the 2009 Behind the Lines exhibition and 63 reproduction works printed from digital media supplied by the artists. These works were originally published in major city newspapers as well as regional and online publications. Forty-six different contemporary artists are represented in the collection including Alan Moir, Peter Nicholson, Cathy Wilcox, Jon Kudelka, David Rowe, Bruce Petty, Dean Alston and Ward O'Neill. This collection has cultural significance to Australia by further documenting political cartooning as an important part of Australia's political culture and preserving a record of several landmark events in Australian political history. Some of Australia's most prominent contemporary cartoonists covered a range of issues including the advancement of the Rudd government, the health and education reform, the global economic recession, the Black Saturday bushfires and the controversy over 'ute-gate'. Australia's economic relationship with China and speculation over an Emissions Trading Scheme was also subject to scrutiny. The increasingly public leadership tension between coalition members which saw Tony Abbott emerge as the new leader of the Liberal Party also provided fodder for artists' pens.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:16:07 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-18. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.