Climate change | National Museum of Australia

The Museum has a new ticketing system. Read our FAQs

9am–5pm
Free general admission
Shop

Donate today

The release of the Garnaut Report in September 2008 confirmed the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions in order to combat climate change. Debate within the Liberal Party regarding its stance on the Emissions Trading Scheme Policy was well documented by cartoonists. Comment was also made on the response of our politicians to the continued decline of the Murray–Darling river system.

Political cartoon of Prime Minister Rudd's bedroom. His bed is to the left. He hides under the bedclothes while a man in a suit with 'Garnaut' on his back opens French windows to the right. Mr Rudd's worried face peeks out from the bedclothes. A gale is coming in through the opening, blowing over furniture and bringing in debris. The suited man is saying 'A beautiful day, Prime Minister!..' At the top centre of the image is written '...The Wake-Up Call...' A sheet of paper in the air has 'Emission Targets 40 percent' on it. - click to view larger image — 'A beautiful day, Prime Minister!' by Geoff Pryor

Political cartoon divided into three horizontal panels. The heading says 'The Liberals Thrash Out Their Latest Policy...' In all three panels Brendan Nelson with a tall caricature head stands before a white board to the left of the image. To the right are seated party members in silhouette. The whiteboard and Dr Nelson say different things in each panel. Top panel: Brendan Nelson says to the party members 'OK...can we agree on this statement?' On the whiteboard is written 'Climate change is real!' Middle panel: Brendan Nelson says to the party members 'No!...OK, how about this version?' On the whiteboard is written 'We give the planet the benefit of the doubt & support action on climate change'. Bottom panel: Brendan Nelson says to the party members 'All agreed...great! Now we have a policy to take to the people'. On the white board is written 'Most of us are skeptics (sic), but we do believe Brendan's hair is real!'. - click to view larger image — 'Liberal policy meeting' by Matt Golding

Political cartoon of Brendan Nelson sitting naked on a bare smooth rock to the left of the image, his right leg drawn up; his body faces to the right. His expression is one of surprise, staring at the viewer. A white cliff coastline is in the background under a cloudy sky. Water with waves is between the rock and the coast. 'Climate Policy monthly July 2008' is in the top right hand corner of the image. Underneath on the same side is 'In this issue Shag on a rock: pure political artistry, or shameless attention seeking?'. - click to view larger image — 'Shag on a rock' by David Pope

Political cartoon of a mother, father and their two children sit on a large lounge to the right of the image facing a giant flat screen TV. On the TV is an image of blue sky and fluffy white clouds. They all smile at the image. To the left is a window. Through it can be seen pollution, rubbish, heavy traffic, a large smoke-belching factory and an airliner in the sky. A cat sleeps peacefully on the floor near the image bottom centre. At the bottom is written 'World Environment Day'. - click to view larger image — 'World Environment Day' by Phil Somerville

Political cartoon of Don Quixote sitting on his horse in the image centre with his back to the viewer. He looks to the right and wears a suit of armour and a rounded hat with a flat brim. His horse wears a protective head covering. Don Quixote holds a lance in his right hand. Ahead looming over the horizon are four wind turbines; one is partly obscured by Don Quixote and his horse. The entire image has a light brown watercolour wash over it. At the top is written 'The Quixote Protocol'. - click to view larger image — 'The Quixote protocol' by Paul Newman

Political cartoon of a clearing in a dense forest. In the centre is a truck with three timber workers on it. On the ground a small crowd of other timber workers and a camera man face them. Parked at the left and right are large bulldozers and trucks. The ground is rutted and bare. One man on the truck is saying 'As we bulldoze this forest for a modern nuclear dioxine toxination mill we acknowledge and honour the original inhabitants the Nullungurra-gurra people...'. - click to view larger image — 'Bulldozer' by Rolf Heimann

Political cartoon of a power station behind a large chain link fence. The station's cooling towers and smokestacks are all emitting clouds of dark smoke. On the fence are two signs, either side of a gate to the left of the image. One says 'Loy Yang C Brown Coal Power Plant'. The other says 'Plastic Bags Not Permitted'. It also has a symbol of a plastic bag in a red circle with a diagonal red stripe over the bag. At the top left hand corner of the image in a white rectangle is written 'A good start'. - click to view larger image — 'A good start ...' by Andrew Weldon

Political cartoon of a father, mother and their son and daughter are outside a cave. All wear primitive clothing made from grass and animal fur. The father sits at the left on a log roasting a chicken leg over a fire. The mother is at the right stirring something in a cooking pot made from a fuel drum. The son and daughter face the father, who is saying 'Housing, electricity and gas became too expensive...water ran out...no teachers, coppers or nurses...' The son is saying 'So...what was left, Dad?' The father replies 'Iron ore son...'. - click to view larger image — 'Iron ore, son' by Dean Alston

Political cartoon of eleven penguins on a white background. One is running in circles at the left side of the image, saying 'The more the ice melts, the warmer things get. The warmer things get, the more the ice melts. The more the ice melts, the warmer things get. The warmer things get...' One penguin in the middle large group is saying 'Slap him someone, he's hysterical'. A single penguin in the bottom right corner is saying 'Quiet! All of you! We've got to think!'. - click to view larger image — 'Hysterical penguins' by Judy Horacek

Political cartoon of Peter Garrett and Penny Wong as mermaid style creatures lying prone in a dry riverbed, tails flapping. Penny Wong is facing right, weakly exhaling. Peter Garrett is parallel to her, facing left. He holds a piece of paper with 'Murray Darling' written on it. At his tail are three sheets of paper. The top one has 'National Resource Management Board of the South Australian Murray – Darling Basin' written on it. At the left of the image is a mermaid skeleton that suggests John Howard. A relentless sun shines down from the clear sky. - click to view larger image — 'Flappity flap' by David Rowe

Political cartoon of three men in a vast brown flat and arid landscape with a dry riverbed running through it. One man stands in the riverbed toward the foreground, looking at a water puddle. The other two, dressed in suits, are walking up the left embankment of the riverbed, toward a dead tree. One is saying 'It's all under control... we're having a meeting in November'. The other carries a document. More dead trees line the riverbed as it winds toward a distant purple-toned mountain range. - click to view larger image — 'The river bed' by Ron Tandberg

Swings and roundabouts

Listen Audio on demand

Our collection

Convict tokens

Publications

Top