Cartoonists hit back at Walkley Awards boycott over fossil fuel links

Walkley Award winner Mark Knight is among a group of cartoonists that has accused colleagues of ‘virtue signalling’ by boycotting this year’s prestigious media honours.

Cartoonist Mark Knight: ‘It’s another act of virtue signalling by the people, let’s splash it all over social media rather than actually make a change to achieve what we think is right.’ Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Walkley Award winner Mark Knight is among a group of cartoonists that has accused colleagues in the industry of “virtue signalling” by boycotting this year’s prestigious media honours because of the event’s links to petroleum company Ampol.

The Herald Sun’s Knight, who was 2022 cartoonist of the year, said the stance by a “left-wing” cohort of cartoonists was disappointing to see and it could have been handled much better.

“The Walkley Foundation now fears that they are being cancelled by the very left-wing cartoonists that they supported for so long, which I think is a great irony,” he told The Australian.

Over the weekend, the Walkley Foundation issued an apology for “racist views” held by the event’s founder, New Zealand-born oil baron, Sir William Gaston Walkley, that were published in a column he wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald 62 years ago.

The foundation’s board also said it was reviewing its sponsorship policies after the backlash erupted.

Knight, who has been a cartoonist for 39 years and has won four Walkley Awards, said the honours should not be destroyed by media activism following many cartoonists voicing their disgust with the event’s sponsorship ties with a fossil fuel company. “The Walkleys are one of the premier media awards in this country and we don’t want to destroy them … it’s a shame to see it damaged in this way,” Knight said.

“It’s another act of virtue signalling by the people, let’s splash it all over social media rather than actually make a change to achieve what we think is right.

“I’ve entered the Walkleys this year and I’ll be sitting at the Ampol table and my diesel ute will be valet parked underneath.

“There’s better ways to do it, they could have gone to the MEAA and said they are not happy about this.”

The Australian’s Johannes Leak in his studio. Picture: John Feder

Ampol is a platinum sponsor of the Walkley Awards, which will be held on November 23.

Knight entered this year’s awards before he even knew of the stance taken by other cartoonists to boycott the event, including The Australian Financial Review’s David Rowe, The Age’s Matt Golding, The Guardian’s First Dog on the Moon, The Mercury’s Chris Downes and Fiona Katauskas, Glen Le Lievre, David Blumenstein, and Andrew Weldon. Weldon wrote on Instagram: “In this era of climate crisis it’s pretty dodgy for major awards for journalism to be sponsored by big oil.

“I've withdrawn my Walkley submission along with many other great cartoonists.”

Many of the cartoonists boycotting the Walkleys are also members of the Australian Cartoonists Association, which is led by The Sydney Morning Herald and Age cartoonist Cathy Wilcox. She and Canberra Times cartoonist David Pope wrote a letter to the Walkley Foundation last week, raising their concerns about the Ampol sponsorship.

“The fossil fuel industry uses its sponsorship of our sporting teams and cultural events to build a social license (sic) and distract attention from its role in heating the planet and delaying the transition to renewable energy,” the letter said.

“With what we know about fossil fuel’s direct impact on the climate and the power of greenwashing through sponsorship of popular cultural events, we believe it is vital for the Walkleys of today to break this bond.”

The Australian’s cartoonist, Johannes Leak, who has never before entered the Walkley Awards, decided to submit a last-minute entry when he heard many cartoonists were disgusted with Ampol’s involvement.

“This just shows that they are climate change activists as much as anything else … we’re just supposed to draw funny pictures,” he said. “These prizes to me are political, they don’t call it the Wokeleys for nothing and I always thought it would be a waste of time to be a part of it.”

The Daily Telegraph cartoonist and car enthusiast Warren Brown. Picture: Toby Zerna

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown, a car enthusiast and motoring historian, has also entered this year’s awards and he said the boycott was a “churlish, stupid thing to do”.

“I suddenly was getting all these calls from the Walkleys asking me to be a judge and asking if I was going to enter,” he said.

“Wait ’til they find who started the Nobel Peace Prize – Nobel invented dynamite – and I can’t see anyone complaining about that.

“I champion fossil fuels, I can’t have enough of it, I would have my own oil rig in my backyard if I could.”

Arthur Gorrie, a former Queensland representative of the then-Australian Journalists’ Association, now media union MEAA, said he was disappointed to read of the boycott of “the Walkley Awards, started in 1956 by Ampol founder Sir William Walkley, because Ampol sells fossil fuels”.

“I recall president Barry Porter telling of an award nominee whose entry included criticism of Ampol,” he said.

“When union officials explained this potentially awkward situation to Sir William, he said there was no problem. There were no strings attached.”

The Walkley Foundation and Ampol were contacted by The Australian but did not respond.

Cartoon: Johannes Leak