Mark Knight cartoon calls on politicians to put brakes on costs and find a solution to shortages

We are in a housing affordability crisis in Australia, remarkably in the place once dubbed* “the Lucky Country”. We are a fortunate land, there’s no doubt about that: rich in resources*, politically stable, a diverse* multicultural population that lives in harmony and “our land abounds in nature’s gifts” as our national anthem proclaims*.

So why is it so hard to buy or rent a property Down Under?

Sky-high property prices and rising interest rates* have made buying a no-go zone, particularly for young people and families. It seems Gen Xers* and Millennials* not only have to borrow from our major banks and lending institutions to buy a house, but now they also need to go to the “Bank of Mum and Dad” to get a leg-up to enter the property market – and that’s if Mum and Dad have anything in reserve.

The other problem if you can’t buy is that you need to rent somewhere to live, but there is a shortage of rental accommodation. We see lines of people outside rental properties that are open for inspection. People with good jobs are finding it increasingly harder to find then afford to rent somewhere to live.

So we need to build more housing.

That’s when we run into supply shortages due to Covid and the increased cost of building materials making construction far more expensive. That has caused some major housing construction companies like Porter Davis to go bust.

We have also opened our doors to immigration* after the Covid border closures with record numbers of immigrants expected over the next two years, so there will be more people that need somewhere to live. Governments need to focus attention on the housing affordability problem and be unified in finding a solution. Someone’s gotta do something. I thought a cartoon on the topic might get the ball rolling.

I noticed that people are resorting to desperate measures. When you walk around the city, you not only see homeless people on the streets, but people sleeping in their cars. A lot of the time these are people with jobs, but they just can’t find rental accommodation. Sometimes they are single mums with children, desperate for somewhere to go. In my cartoon, I thought I would highlight this group of people that have been left stranded and are forced to sleep in their cars.

I sketched a woman with her child and all their earthly possessions in the family car in a Melbourne city street. To show how cold it can be at this time of year, the woman wears a beanie and is huddled under a sleeping bag. Suitcases, a kettle and washing hanging up show the reader that this is their current home.

As I was drawing the cartoon, news came through that Melbourne City council was changing its parking laws. There would be no more free parking in the CBD on Sundays. People would have to pay for a two-hour limit now. I thought I could conflate* the two stories of housing affordability and the parking laws to emphasise just how difficult it has become to find somewhere to live these days. So next to the parked car I drew a parking sign displaying the new parking laws, stating that it was a ticketed two-hour parking limit zone.

Then I added a parking inspector placing a parking ticket under the wiper of the car. The child in the car tells her mum that housing affordability just got a bit tougher. Ain’t that the truth.

Cartoons like this hope to draw empathy* from the reader and an understanding of the serious issues at hand using emphasis and a little black humour. Let’s hope our politicians get the message too.

GLOSSARY

• dubbed: given an unofficial name, given a nickname
• resources: natural, financial, useful or valuable possessions or qualities of a country
• diverse: including many different types of people or things
• proclaim: announcing something publicly or officially, especially something positive
• interest rates: the amount a lender like a bank charges a borrower on top of the loan amount
• Gen X: generation born roughly between the mid-1960s and early 1980s
• Millennials: generation born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s
• immigration: process of people becoming residents or citizens in another country
• conflate: combine, bring together, blend
• empathy: ability to understand the thoughts, feelings and experiences of others

EXTRA READING

Pocket money on the chopping block

Reserve Bank ‘Grinch’ who stole Xmas

Reality bites: dinner rituals ditched

QUICK QUIZ

1. What is the line from Australia’s national anthem that Mark Knight quotes?
2. What two forces have made buying property a no-go zone for families and young people?
3. What has caused supply shortages in the construction sector?
4. What is the new Sunday parking limit in Melbourne’s CBD?
5. A record number of what is expected in Australia in the next two years?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. What happens next?
Imagine this cartoon is part of a story that is made up of three cartoons. The three cartoons tell a complete story, and Mark’s cartoon is the start of the story. Think about what the story could be and draw the next two cartoons that tell the story.

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

2. Extension
Look through the most recent stories on Kids News and choose one to draw a cartoon about.

Use Mark’s three-step process to get started:

What is my subject?

What do I want to say about this issue?

How do I say it? Do I use visual metaphors (an image that the viewer is meant to understand as a symbol for something else), multiple panels or symbolism (when one idea, feeling or emotion is represented by something else such as a picture, character, colour or object)?

Time: allow at least 40 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum links: English; Humanities; Visual Arts; Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Stretch your sentence

• Find a “who” in the cartoon – a person or an animal. Write it down.
• Add three adjectives to describe them better.
• Now add a verb to your list. What are they doing?
• Add an adverb about how they are doing the action.
• Using all the words listed, create one descriptive sentence.