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Behind the Lines

Buried bones

Scoops, scandals and secrets are the juicy bones that newshounds sniff out and dig up.

They provide much-needed distractions from the momentous events unfolding across the nation and the globe. 2020 offered up the old favourites of party infighting, branch-stacking and alleged pork-barrelling. Headline writers got a gift with a scandal that rhymed: 'sports rorts'. Meanwhile, buried bones of a different sort prompted the Department of Home Affairs to consider domestic surveillance. And the 'robodebt' debacle refused go away quietly.

Four men in hazmat suits, three are holding red boxes. The man without a box asks, 'Coronavirus?' The labels for the boxes are: 'sports rorts', 'Angus Taylor' and 'Robodebt'.

The Virus

Lindsay Foyle, New Matilda,

Two panels. First panel, shadowy figures watch a robot chase two people. The robot says, 'You owe us'. Second panel, the robot explodes, the two people say, 'An apology!!'

Owing Something to Someone

Matt Golding, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald,

Scott Morrison and Bridget McKenzie use buckets to try to put out fires coming out of many barrels of 'pork'.

Roast Pork

Jon Kudelka, The Saturday Paper,

Scott Morrison is on horseback. Beneath are members of the Nationals as cats. In the background is Parliament House.

Herding Nats

Matt Golding, The Sydney Morning Herald,

A man is at a desk labelled 'Your government at work', he asks 'What's going on?' People and speech bubbles are blacked out behind the desk. The only speech bubble not redacted says, 'And have a nice day!'

Australians’ Access to Information – Redacted

Simon Kneebone, Australian Socialist,

A man who is 'feeling irrelevant' stands with a briefcase in a hallway outside a 'Libs' room. On the 'Labor' side of the hallway there is blood, knives and a dead person. People fight and swear in the Labor doorway.

Feeling Irrelevant

Mark Knight, Herald Sun,

Kristina Keneally has broken the emergency glass to steal the John W Howard Memorial Dog Whistle. Peter Dutton is in the corner saying, 'Kristina! Fancy seeing you here...'

Hitting the (Far) Right Note

Fiona Katauskas, Eureka Street,

A coffee table book titled 'Penny Wong's eyebrows during Senate estimates'. Book cover has six images, each with Penny Wong's eyebrows in a different expression.

The Eyes Have It

Glen Le Lievre, The Australian,

A scientist tells a man about a political vaccine, but says unfortunately there is no 'syringe strong enough to penetrate the thick hide of the average politician'.

Political Pandemic

Michael Leunig, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald,

Scott Morrison and another man stand between a 'Public health contact tracing app' sign and a sign of Peter Dutton's face as the 'Department of Home Affairs'. A tape measure is on the floor. They discuss 'physical distancing'.

A Measure of Trust

David Pope, The Canberra Times,

A flow chart of different soundbites that are synonyms for 'It wasn't me'.

Chain of Command

Cathy Wilcox, The Sydney Morning Herald,

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