IT’S been a dog of a year if Australia’s political cartoonists are to be believed, but that makes it the perfect target for their satirical skills, as the latest edition of “Behind the Lines: The Year in Political Cartoons 2020” at the Museum of Australian Democracy shows.

And with the subtitle “A Dog’s Breakfast”, curator Holly Williams has been able to mix lots of doggy jokes with the overall picture of “a year filled with mess, turmoil and failed attempts”.

Visual cues, as Williams points out, have been taken from face masks, spiky balls and burnt trees, as the cartoonists have been sniffing out the dog-eat-dog world of politics, with its top dogs, sly dogs and people thrown to the dogs.

For the second time, Sydney cartoonist Cathy Wilcox has been named Political Cartoonist of the Year for her dogged pursuit of issues through both mini-cartoon essays and simple images with few words.

“Cathy has pricked people’s hearts with her take on events big and small, finding a poignant angle to the summer’s bushfire and wildlife disaster and the COVID-centric humour,” director of MoAD, Daryl Karp, says.

Writing in the catalogue essay, one of the judges for 2020, Nobel Laureate Professor Peter C Doherty, suggested that some cartoonists were pulling their punches on uncomfortable subjects, saying, “We are now facing some very real and dangerous problems… Satirists at least should be able to address them”.

Point taken, but overall, they have played it straight, with bushfires linked to climate change, seen most notably in David Rowe’s Walkley-winning cartoon, “Thoughts and Prayers”. 

While Donald Trump may be viewed as top dog from the cartoonist’s point of view, Australia has its own star performer too, in Prime Minister Scott Morrison, depicted confronting the country’s crises with Mr Nice Guy affability but not much attention to the underlying causes of the problems.

Curator Williams has plainly enjoyed putting the unwieldy list of 104 cartoons from 36 cartoonists into some shape, with section titles like “Buried Bones”, “Stuck in The Kennel”, “Off the Leash” and “Not Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie”.

The exhibition will have to be seen to understand what they’re all about, but for instance, the “Buried Bones” section refers to the “the juicy bones that newshounds sniff out and dig up” – things like party infighting, branch-stacking and the robodebt debacle. 

Dog lovers offended by the general tenor of the show will be relieved to hear that the feline species has not remained unscathed, seen in Matt Golding’s cartoon, “Herding Nats”.

Innovations this year are inclusion of digital cartoons and a selection of cartoons on the annual “Closing the Gap” reports curated by Amy McQuire, the outspoken First Nations journalist known for her excoriating report on The Intervention.

The popular exhibition, which runs in Old Parliament House for a year, is always targeted to families, so at the entry section there are opportunities for lots of doggy fun. 

But the main aim, Williams says, is to look back on a “sloppy mess of a year and send it firmly back to the doghouse where it belongs”.

“Behind The Lines: The Year in Political Cartoons 2020”, at Museum of Australian Democracy, Old Parliament House until November 2021.

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