Chalmers' budget gift that keeps giving for cartoonist Mark Knight

The federal budget is when Australians get to hear what state the national finances are in and what lies ahead for the next year.

The Federal Treasurer, who is in charge of the country’s purse strings*, lays out a plan for the next 12 months, namely where the government will spend its money, where it will get its money from through taxes and borrowings, what we have in the bank and what we owe.

Jim Chalmers is the Treasurer in Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government, and it is a big day for Dr Chalmers, who has to not only charm the voters but big business, the Reserve Bank* and the financial markets. No pressure!

Because the Budget is so big, with so many stories within it, it is hard to sum it up in one cartoon, so I thought we could have a look at three cartoons I drew this week on the Budget process.

The first was the day before the Budget was handed down. Expectations are building at this stage and I wanted to comment on the feeling in Canberra that this would be a Budget to help Australians with the cost of living in difficult times. Could the Treasurer do it?

As I was thinking of an idea, something caught my attention on my news feed. A light plane had to make a forced landing without landing gear at Newcastle Airport.

The nation watched as the pilot steered the aircraft in, and after a nervous few moments, successfully landed the plane, with no landing gear, on its belly on the runway. I thought it was a lovely metaphor for our Treasurer trying to bring his Budget home. Could he land it? The cartoon drew itself, with Dr Chalmers at the controls of his winged Budget descending onto the road in front of Parliament House. People would associate the cartoon with the vision they had seen on their news feed.

The second cartoon I drew was an attempt to illustrate the main theme of the Budget, which was compensating Australians for cost of living price rises, but the Treasurer had to be careful not to throw too much money around and reignite inflation in the economy.

I drew this cartoon in the “Budget lockup”, where journalists are given the Budget papers behind locked doors earlier in the day. It is there that they examine all the budget papers and write their analysis before the Budget is released to the public that night. It’s like a big exam for journos and political cartoonists.

I depicted* inflation* as the fire-breathing dragon, which is always fun to draw, and a bold metaphor to illustrate the damage inflation does to spending power.

Dr Chalmers was giving away a few handouts in this budget, for example tax cuts, cash rebates for power bills and rent assistance, which financial experts argued might fuel the inflation dragon’s fire.

This concern led me to caricature* the Treasurer precariously* riding the winged beast, tossing tax cut cash to the struggling electorate* below. The cartoon suggests that the Treasurer will need all of his skill and a firm hand on the reins to keep inflation under control.

The third cartoon was one I drew the day after the budget, when it had been thoroughly analysed.

It seemed that there were a lot of goodies in the budget and some pundits* suggested that these giveaways may be preparing the electorate for an early election. My reaction was that Dr Chalmers was behaving like the potential new boyfriend arriving with flowers, gifts and champagne to win the affections of voters. Would we fall for it? A few hand-outs in a federal budget, then call an early election and see voters return the favour by giving the Treasurer their vote … surely not?

The cartoon examines the process of politicians wooing* voters – and in my experience, the voting public does fall for the gift of a cute kitten every time!

POLL

GLOSSARY

• purse strings: controlling the way money is spent by a particular group
• Reserve Bank: Australia’s central bank sets monetary policy and issues our banknotes
• depicted: showed, portrayed, illustrated
• inflation: an increase in the price of goods and services that households buy
• caricature: drawing or description that exaggerates their appearance or behaviour in a humorous or critical way
• precariously: doing something in a way that’s uncertain, insecure or unstable
• electorate: all the people who are allowed or eligible to vote in a country or area
• pundits: people who know a lot about a particular subject
• wooing: trying to persuade someone to support or like you

EXTRA READING

Other story puts federal budget in shade

The rate rise that stopped a nation

Cartoon shows worries keeping Treasurer awake

QUICK QUIZ

1. Who is Jim Chalmers?
2. What does the federal budget consider in its 12-month forward plan?
3. Who does the Treasurer need to charm with the budget?
4. What is the budget lockup?
5. What does Mark Knight suggest the goodies for voters might mean?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Humour analysis
After reading and analysing the Mark Knight cartoon in the Kids News explainer, complete the following analysis questions to help you get the full humour out of his drawing.

What is the main issue Mark Knight is highlighting?

Who is portrayed in the cartoon?

How are they portrayed?

What is the humour in the drawing?

Who might agree with his viewpoint?

Who might disagree or possibly be offended by this viewpoint?

Do you think he makes a good point? Explain your answer.

Time: allow 25 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Write a response to this cartoon from the viewpoint of one of the people or objects portrayed in the cartoon. Think, what would be their response to the speech bubble and satire from the cartoon.

Write or draw your response below.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
What happens next?
Imagine these three cartoons are part of an animated series made up of five cartoons. The five cartoons tell the complete story and Mark Knight’s budget cartoons are only the first three parts. Think about what the rest of the story could be and draw the next two cartoons to finish the story.

Time: allow 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Visual Communication Design, Critical and Creative Thinking