Privatised Punishment

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

Type: Cartoons
Materials: Card, Ink
Collection: Political Humour Competition 2002 collection
Accession number: 2002.0072.0021

Description

A black and white hand drawn cartoon showing a man strapped into a chair with a helmet on his head, and a square box with a slot next to him. The text on the box reads 'INSERT / COIN / HERE'. The text below the cartoon reads 'PRIVATISED PUNISHMENT'. The artist's signature is written at the lower right of the cartoon.

About the collection

This collection comprises 154 political cartoons collected under the auspices of the Museum's 2002 National Political Humour Competition. There are 45 different artists represented in the collection including Alan Moir, Peter Nicholson, Cathy Wilcox, Sean Leahy, Bruce Petty, Dean Alston and Ward O'Neill. The cartoons provide a satirical record of the major events and personalities in Australian politics in 2002. Major topics addressed within the collection include the asylum seekers (including the Tampa controversy), Cheryl Kernot's autobiography, the split within the Australian Democrats, the Australian Labor Party's attempts to reposition itself within the electorate, the Bali bombing and the possibility of war in Iraq. There are examples from all major metropolitan newspapers as well as material from regional publications. There are traditional black and white editorial and pocket cartoons as well as colour illustrations and caricatures. Taken together the collection provides a diverse visual archive of Australian political events in 2002 and demonstrate the quality of Australian cartooning and illustration.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:11:27 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-17. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.