The Winter edition of Australian Options is out. The focus is on the 2014 Australian Budget. Launched in 1995, ‘Australian Options is a quarterly journal which aims to challenge the ideas dominating Australian mainstream debate’. Here are some of this issue’s cartoon illustrations.
In the lead up to the G20 meeting of Global leaders in Brisbane Australian Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews has declared that ‘We must continue efforts to combat corruption which is one of the greatest barriers to global growth’ (more in the Pro Bono News post here), while persisting with the government’s ‘promise’ to make a bonfire of pesky red and green tape – including the independent charities and not-for-profits regulator ACNC. Not considering that a lot of pesky red and green tape helps keep many organisations on the straight and narrow (see this post, ‘…there are powerful groups… that do not want the scrutiny of an independent body…’). Here is my Pro Bono News cartoon take on things.
‘Supporters of the Not for Profit peak body Refugee Council of Australia (RCOA) have responded to the Federal Government’s cut to the peak body’s core funding – donating $50,000 in two days to its emergency funding appeal. …RCOA chief executive officer Paul Power said that he was still astounded by Minister Scott Morrison’s decision to remove funding that was in the Immigration Department budget that he got through Federal Cabinet just a few weeks earlier.
“Mr Morrison’s suggestion that he was not aware that his Department was funding RCOA is difficult to accept,” Power said.
“The only conclusion one can draw is that either Mr Morrison is being disingenuous in claiming he wasn’t aware of the funding or he has little comprehension of what is happening in the portfolio for which he has responsibility.” ‘
Read the full post on the Pro Bono News website here. The cartoon is today’s Pro Bono News NFP Kneebone.
This month’s New internationalist Scratchy Lines cartoon.
This week’s NFP Kneebone cartoon for the Pro Bono news website:
Australian’s are told they will have to do ‘the heavy lifting’ to get the budget out of deficit. In this political climate many not-for-profit community organisations face uncertain funding – and futures.
Posts on the Pro Bono news website give plenty of background, and here’s the NFP Kneebone cartoon from the website.
The Scratchy Lines cartoon for this month’s New Internationalist magazine. (The Australian site and blog is here).
Australian Options is a quarterly journal ‘which aims to challenge the ideas dominating Australian mainstream debate’. Major articles are by ‘activists and progressive thinkers on contemporary political, social and cultural issues’. It is now heading into its 19th year of publication – and of my ‘cartoon commentary’ illustrating many of the articles. Here are some from the last couple of issues.
‘Prime Minister Tony Abbott has placed the abolition of the charity regulator, the ACNC (Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission) on the top of his repeal day hit list describing the process as the biggest bonfire of regulations in the country’s history’ writes the Pro Bono news website post ACNC In Repeal Day Bonfire. Social Services minister Kevin Andrews has introduced a Two-stage Plan to Abolish ACNC, removing ‘unnecessary regulatory control’ and directing the sector to ‘self-manage’.
9500 other ‘unproductive regulations’ are also to be abolished. Hey, who needs government?
‘Advocacy and Disability Not for Profits have reacted strongly to suggestions that funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme [NDIS] may be cut back or the roll-out slowed. The Coalition Government indicated for the first time that the National Disability Insurance Scheme may be hit by funding cutbacks as part of so called “budget savings”’. Read more from the Pro Bono news website here.
Pro Bono is the ‘online hub for people engaged with Australia’s Not for Profit Communities’.
Here is my NFP Kneebone take on the report:
Simon Kneebone - cartoonist and illustrator 