IT was blast-off time this morning (December 1) when the Museum of Australian Democracy acting director Andrew Harper and his staff unveiled “Behind the Lines 2022: the year in political cartoons”.

According to Harper, “this year’s theme, ‘Off the Planet,’ is an exploration of all things alien and astronomical that have occurred in politics in Australia and around the world”.

“A new ship’s captain was selected, marking a new course for star ship Australia, while a new alien life form – teal independents – emerged. We looked to the stars to try and guess what the future holds,” he said.

To make some sense of that, he introduced Swinburne University’s Prof Alan Duffy, the project lead of SpaceTech Applications at Swinburne’s Data Science Research Institute and chief judge in the cartoon competition.

Duffy’s short lecture drew parallels between the virtues of astronomy and cartooning.

He set down three basic principles: keep it simple (cartoonists were doing that every day); make it relevant ( cartoonists made complex topics comprehensible); and a picture is worth 1000 words.

Speaking to a group of laypeople, he described one of the year’s great astronomical events, the successful double-action collision with an asteroid, then went on the praise the technology which would allow “impossible imagery” of Black Holes.

Sophisticated technology was on the mind of exhibitor curator Amy Lay, too, who told those present that the “off the planet” theme was perfect for the show, reflecting hope and optimism, along with a sense of uncertainty that remained.

She said that this year there were more female cartoonists than ever before and many first-time contributors, mostly on social-media platforms.

These brought a new perspective to cartooning that would very likely attract younger audiences as they spoke truth to power.

Harper then announced that the winner of the political cartoonist of the year was, for the second time, Canberra cartoonist, David Pope who, he said, had “captured the public mood”.

Pope praised the idea of the exhibition, which had begun at the National Museum, then moved to MoAD, from which it now travelled around the country.

He said he had been recently struck by images of Chinese protesters holding blank pieces of paper up in the air and said, “It made me aware of the privilege we have to do, I work freely and have it celebrated by our national institutions.”

Pope said he believed that compared to 2003 when he was a young cartoonist, we were now on the cusp of great collective changes as the generation shifted.

But he cautioned that social media – if you think of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter – did not necessarily a guarantee freedom for cartoonists.

Even so, he said, “the craft is exploding, and there is now a new cartooning generation”.

The exhibition now runs for 12 months and is full of sharp political cartoons on all manner of subjects, but  you’d have to be looking hard to find the outer-space element.

The section entitled “Zero Gravity,” for instance, is said to be about the way petrol prices, interest  rates and energy bills “seemed to escape the confines of gravity”.

Similarly, in the section “Spaceship Earth”, we read that “we are all astronauts on Spaceship Earth, but some astronauts use up more oxygen than others.” Think Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.

A highlight of this year’s exhibition is a small retrospective of  cartoons selected by celebrated refugee and author, Behrouz Boochani, now living in NZ to throw light on the issues associated with our asylum-seeker policies.

“Behind the Lines 2022: the year in political cartoons – Off the Planet,” Museum of Australian Democracy until December 2023.